Lytvyn Dmytro Volodymyrovych

Speechwriter and Communications Advisor to Zelensky

Dmytro Lytvyn is a communications advisor to President Zelensky, officially appointed in September 2024, but in fact linked to the Office of the President at least since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. He is a lawyer by education and a native of Kyiv. As a journalist and blogger, he collaborated with Telekritika, Livyi Bereh, and the website Revizor.ua (associated with Volodymyr Petrov), and also hosted a talk show on the Inter TV channel alongside Yevhen Kiselyov. Working at Inter—a channel that critics have associated with pro-Russian narratives—while simultaneously serving as an advisor to the president of a country at war is a notable combination.

"Generator of Anxiety" and Influence on Personnel Decisions

After Yermak’s resignation as head of the Office of the President, according to Ukrainska Pravda, Dmytro Lytvyn became the main "generator of anxiety" for Zelensky and tries to influence the president’s personnel decisions. Informal influence on personal appointments without transparent authority is a typical sign of a "gray cardinal" in the communications hierarchy.

UP Ban — and Denials

Following his official appointment as advisor, journalists from Ukrainska Pravda accused Lytvyn of imposing a ban on law enforcement officers and officials communicating with the editorial office and of removing Ukrainska Pravda from the list of media outlets invited to meetings with Zelensky. Lytvyn denied this. The conflict with one of Ukraine’s most influential publications is a telling detail for a person whose official task is communication.