Ten of Ukraine’s 21 ministerial seats stood empty by the end of the day on September 4, 2024. Six ministers had handed in resignations, and parliament had already accepted four of them.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made no secret of why. “We need new energy today, and these steps are related only to the strengthening of our state in different directions,” he told reporters at a joint news conference with visiting Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris, Reuters reported.
Who is leaving
The most recognizable name is Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. After Zelenskyy himself, he was the best-known Ukrainian face abroad, a fluent English speaker who spent the war lobbying foreign leaders for weapons and political backing. Parliament was due to take up his resignation on Thursday.
The list also covered the deputy prime minister in charge of European integration, the strategic industries minister who oversaw arms production, and two other ministers. That strategic industries minister, Oleksandr Kamyshin, presided over a jump in Ukraine’s domestic arms output. He said on Tuesday he would stay in the defense sector in a different role.
Here’s the practical upshot: this was not a sudden shock. Kyiv political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko called it “a planned personnel overhaul of the government.” He said the reset had been postponed because Zelenskyy spent the summer on talks with Western partners about military and financial aid. “Now half of the government will be renewed,” Fesenko said. “This is Zelenskiy’s style. He believes that the new minister brings new energy, new approaches, works more actively.”
What comes next
Zelenskyy was expected to name his pick for foreign minister the same day, with first deputy foreign minister Andrii Sybiha among the frontrunners. Fesenko did not expect Kuleba’s exit to change foreign policy in any major way. Analysts also noted that the president’s pool of talent was limited, and they expected some departing ministers to land new posts. Lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said parliament would keep working through resignations and appointments on Thursday.
The timing was awkward. Russian forces were advancing in the east, while Ukrainian troops had made a bold incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. Moscow had stepped up drone and missile attacks, and on September 3 two missiles killed at least 50 people, including soldiers, in the central town of Poltava, the deadliest single attack of the war that year. Kyiv had launched a mass drone strike on Russian energy infrastructure over the weekend.
Zelenskyy was due to travel to the United States later that month to present a “victory plan” to President Joe Biden. The Kremlin said the Ukrainian government changes would not affect any peace negotiation process, though Reuters noted such talks looked like a distant prospect.
