Ex-SBU chief Smeshko says no job offer comes from Zelenskiy

Head of the public organization Strength and Honor and ex-SBU State Security Service chief Ihor Smeshko, who received 6.04 percent support in the first round of Ukraine’s presidential elections, has said he has not received any job offers from President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy, adding that he is ready for dialogue.

“I have not received any offers and have had no contact with the newly elected president. I know him only visually, I don’t know him in person,” Smeshko said during an interview on Radio NV on Friday.

Smeshko said he would never betray his supporters.

“I entered politics and will keep on going to the end. My goal is to create Ukraine’s first ideologically democratic conservative political party on the basis of Strength and Honor,” he said.

“Immediately after the elections, I said our party would run in the parliamentary elections and create a powerful faction,” Smeshko said.

He said taking any position in the executive branch “without ideology, without understanding the importance of systemic changes and the worldview of this team” would be “sham.”

“But I am a career officer. There is a war. The aggressor has seized part of the territory of Ukraine. The new president is legally elected, he is the Supreme Commander, and, of course, if there is a proposal from the president and it is in line with my understanding that I can help him to protect our state, there is no doubt that I will accept this offer. I will do everything possible,” Smeshko said.

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