Last Updated on 05/09/2024 by Arun jain
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba quit his role on Wednesday following the resignation of several other cabinet members amid a sweeping reshuffle of the Ukrainian government, the biggest since Russia’s full-scale invasion more than two years ago.
The shake-up comes at a critical point in the war, as Ukrainian forces seized part of Russia’s Kursk region in a surprise cross-border offensive last month and Moscow continues to strike energy facilities across Ukraine, leading to blackouts and spreading fear. A terrible winter ahead.
On Tuesday, at least 51 people were killed in a Russian attack on the central Ukrainian city of Poltava.
“The fall will be extremely important for Ukraine. And our state institutions must be set up in such a way that Ukraine will achieve all the results we want,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an address on Tuesday evening. “To do this, we need to strengthen some areas in the government. – and personnel decisions are prepared.”
Zelensky is expected to travel to the United States this month to attend the United Nations General Assembly and has said he intends to present US President Joe Biden as well as presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris with a “victory plan” to win the war.
Ukrainian lawmakers said they expected another round of firings and resignations – which have been rumored for some time as part of a major government shake-up – to continue on Thursday. David Arakhmia, head of Zelensky’s Servant of the People party in Ukraine’s parliament said The telegram message said that up to 50 percent of the cabinet ministers may be reshuffled.
In a meeting with his party in the Ukrainian parliament on Wednesday, Zelensky said the reshuffle was aimed at reactivating the government and increasing efficiency in certain areas, according to Oleksandr Merezko, chairman of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
Rumors of a coup have been swirling in Ukraine for months. Andriy Osadchuk, a member of the Ukrainian parliament with the opposition Holos party, said about a quarter of cabinet positions were held by acting ministers following earlier resignations.
Ukrainian analysts struggled to explain the rationale for the reshuffle, noting that some of those who resigned are expected to hold senior government positions.
“I don’t think anyone can explain why most of the changes are happening,” said Andriy Borovic, executive director of Transparency International Ukraine. “We cannot say that this is a new team in the government,” he said, adding that many of the new appointees currently serve as deputy ministers or as officials in the President’s office.
Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, and elections, normally held every five years, have been postponed indefinitely.
But with much of Ukraine’s foreign policy already being run by presidential office chiefs Zelensky and Andriy Yermak, former US officials and experts saw the move as a reshuffling of deck chairs in Ukraine’s cabinet rather than a full personnel makeover.
“These are Ukrainian decisions to be made and indeed the president’s decision to make,” said former ambassador William Taylor, who headed the US embassy in Kyiv until January 2020. United States.”
In the past year, Zelensky has taken a firm hand with personnel changes. In September 2023, he swapped then-Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov for Rustem Umarov, and followed that with General Oleksandr Sirsky, replacing the popular General Valery Zaluzhny as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in February. With the prospect of continuing to see the centralization of power in the hands of Zelensky and Yermak, some lawmakers considered the changes.
“President Zelensky doesn’t believe in institutions — he believes in people,” said a Ukrainian lawmaker who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing changes. But organizations must act and organizations must have strategies. That doesn’t happen in Ukraine.”
Following Kuleba’s resignation, Andriy Sibihan will be nominated as Ukraine’s foreign minister, two people familiar with the decision said. Sibiha was Yermak’s deputy in the presidential office until earlier this year and was previously Ukraine’s ambassador to Turkey.
“It will have a different style from Kuleba,” Taylor said. “It will probably instill a little more discipline [Ministry of Foreign Affairs]. It is more formal.
As part of the changes, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Olha Stefanishna’s portfolio is expected to be folded into the Justice Ministry, with Stefanishna tipped to lead the ministry in an expanded role as the country moves forward with accession negotiations with the European Union. Alona Getmanchuk, director of the New Europe Center, a Kiev-based think tank.
Oleksandr Kamyshyn will be promoted to become a strategic adviser to the presidential office, two Ukrainian officials said, putting the former Ukrainian railroad and arms czar very close to the powerful president.
“For me, now is the time for new challenges,” Kamishin said In a post on X on Wednesday after Ukraine’s parliament voted through his resignation. “I will remain part of the team and continue to do everything possible to bring our victory closer. I will continue to build the arsenal of the free world.” Herman Smetanin, the head of Ukraine’s state defense group, Ukroboronprom, is expected to take over the strategic industries ministry.
Ukrainian officials said Kuleba could take on the role of ambassador to Africa, where he has Champion Boosting Ukraine’s diplomatic footprint to counter growing Russian influence in the Global South or in larger European institutions such as NATO or the Council of Europe.
Ukraine is trying to move forward with anti-corruption reforms. Despite Russia’s two military incursions, it has moved up 40 places on Transparency International’s scorecard on addressing corruption over the past decade. And experts don’t expect the shake-up to delay those efforts much.
“Let’s be fair: this is still an ongoing war, a very serious situation in the East. They are still scrambling to get arms and support from Ukraine and other Western partners in Ukraine, said Jonathan Katz, senior director of the Brookings Institution’s Anti-Corruption, Democracy and Security Project. . “Certainly there is some consolidation of power in scenarios like this where you have ongoing conflict.”
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