Volodymyr Zelenskyy orders govt reshuffle to provide Ukraine ‘new energy’
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Ukraine needed “new energy”, as he ordered a major government reshuffle at a crucial juncture in the war against Russia.
A total of six ministers, including Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, submitted their resignation and parliament accepted the resignations of four.
They included the resignations of a deputy prime minister in charge of European integration, the strategic industries minister overseeing Ukraine’s arms production and two other ministers, the lawmakers said.
“We need new energy today, and these steps are related only to the strengthening of our state in different directions,” Zelenskyy told media during a joint news conference with a visiting Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris.
Lawmakers said that parliament was expected to consider Kuleba’s resignation on Thursday. After Zelenskyy, 43-year-old Kuleba was the best-known face of Ukraine overseas, meeting leaders around the world and lobbying for military and political support in fluent English.
Analysts said the government reset had been planned for some time but was postponed because Zelenskyy had focused on talks with Kyiv’s Western partners through the summer to secure military and financial aid.
“This is a planned personnel overhaul of the government,” said Volodymyr Fesenko, a Kyiv-based political analyst. Fesenko did not expect a major foreign policy change following Kuleba’s expected dismissal.
Zelenskyy is expected to nominate his candidate for a new foreign minister on Wednesday, with first deputy foreign minister Andrii Sybiha among the frontrunners.
The Kremlin said that government changes in Ukraine would not affect a peace negotiation process in any way, although such talks appear a distant prospect with the two warring parties far apart in their objectives.
Russian forces are advancing in the east of Ukraine while Ukrainian troops have made a bold incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
Moscow has intensified drone and missile attacks in recent weeks, while Kyiv launched a mass drone attack on Russia’s energy infrastructure over the weekend.
On Tuesday, at least 50 people were killed by two missiles in Ukraine.
Don’t mock our red lines: Lavrov to US
Russian FM Sergei Lavrov, responding to a question about the potential delivery of long-range US missiles to Ukraine, warned the US not to joke about Russia's “red lines”. “But they should understand - they are joking about our red lines here. They shouldn't joke about our red lines,” he said. Reuters