Dmytro Kuleba, in the job since March 2020, has stepped down as Ukraine’s foreign minister. He was the most senior of several officials who resigned on Tuesday in a wide-ranging reshuffle of the cabinet.
The departures left some of the government’s top posts empty, among them the strategic industries ministry that oversees weapons production. Alexander Kamyshin held that job. Others who handed in resignations were justice minister Denys Maliuska, environmental protection minister Ruslan Strilets, deputy prime ministers Olha Stefanishyna and Iryna Vereshchuk, and Vitaliy Koval, head of the State Property Fund. President Volodymyr Zelensky also dismissed Rostyslav Shurma, one of his most senior aides, by decree.
Half the cabinet to change
David Arakhamiya, parliamentary leader of the ruling Servant of the People party, wrote on Telegram that a “major government reset” would replace more than half the Cabinet of Ministers’ staff. Thursday, he said, would be a “day of appointments”.
Zelensky addressed it in his nightly video message on Tuesday. State institutions “should be configured so that Ukraine achieves all the results that we need,” he said. “For this, we must strengthen some areas of the government and changes in its make-up have been prepared. There will also be changes in the [president’s] office.”
MP Inna Sovsun told the BBC there were “no questions” about how well Kuleba had done his job, and that she knew of no disagreement between him and Zelensky. Her argument was about timing. Parliamentary and presidential elections are suspended under martial law, so “reshuffling the government is the best way to bring in new people, new ideas into the government which are very badly needed at the moment.”
Opposition criticism
Not everyone was persuaded. Opposition MP Iryna Gerashchenko called the result “a government without ministers. A parliament without a mono-majority. An intellectual and personnel crisis to which the authorities turn a blind eye.” She urged a unity government and an end to the hold of Zelensky’s political team on power.
This is not the first overhaul. Zelensky has reworked his government several times since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. At least five portfolios, infrastructure and agriculture included, have stood vacant since ministers left or were dismissed earlier this year. His first presidential term was due to end in May 2024, but he stays in office under martial law.
The reshuffle came as Russia kept up its bombardment of Ukrainian cities.
