Ukrainian foreign minister resigns in government shake-up

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Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister Dmytro Kuleba has resigned as the biggest shake-up of the wartime government gathered pace in Kyiv on Wednesday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the wave of ministerial resignations is part of an effort to “give new strength” to Ukraine’s institutions.

Speaker of the parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk published a photo of Kuleba’s resignation letter on Facebook. The foreign minister did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his decision.

The reshuffle comes at a crucial point in the 30-month-long war, with Kyiv trying to hold off Moscow’s escalating offensive in eastern Ukraine while simultaneously rushing to solidify its grip on about 1,000 sq km of territory it has seized inside Russia’s Kursk region.

“Autumn 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 need — for all of us,” Zelenskyy said in his evening address on Tuesday. “To do this, we need to strengthen some areas in the government — and personnel decisions have been prepared.”

He said more changes were likely to happen within his office and that “certain areas of our foreign and domestic policies will have a slightly different emphasis”.

Some of the ministers who submitted resignations are likely to remain in government but take on new roles or expanded portfolios, several of the officials who quit told the Financial Times.

Many personnel changes have been made to Ukraine’s government since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, including the replacement of the defence minister, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and the heads of its foreign and domestic intelligence services and national security office.

David Arakhamia, the head of Zelenskyy’s ruling Servant of the People group in parliament, wrote on Telegram that more than half of Ukraine’s current cabinet would be moved or replaced in the coming days, making these the most sweeping changes to government since Russia’s invasion.

“As promised, a major reboot of the government can be expected this week,” he said on Tuesday evening local time. He said that Wednesday would be “the day of lay-offs, and the day after . . . the day of appointments”.

Kyiv has been seeking to turn the tide of war in its favour with its audacious incursion into Russia last month and to strengthen its position ahead of any possible peace negotiations, after several difficult months in which it lost the initiative on the battlefield and suffered rolling nationwide blackouts because of Russian air strikes on its energy infrastructure.

Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, was among those who submitted resignations on Tuesday evening, she confirmed to the FT.

Stefanishyna, who was appointed in 2020, has led Ukraine’s drive to join the EU. She said she hoped she would receive an expanded mandate in the reshuffle. “But you know, thing[s] could change along the way, as always in politics. Especially in [Ukraine],” she said.

Iryna Vereshchuk, deputy prime minister for the reintegration of temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, followed with her own resignation shortly after.

Earlier on Tuesday, Stefanchuk said he had received resignation letters from Oleksandr Kamyshin, the minister of strategic industries, Denys Malyuska, the justice minister, Ruslan Strilets, minister of environmental protection and natural resources, and Vitaliy Koval, head of the state property fund.

The parliamentary Speaker shared photos of the officials’ letters on Facebook, writing that their requests would be considered by lawmakers at one of the next parliamentary sessions.

A person close to Kamyshin said he was expected to be appointed to another position in the government or within the Zelenskyy administration. Kamyshin previously headed Ukraine’s state railway company and was credited with keeping trains running despite the war. Since then, he has spearheaded the revival of domestic arms production.

Zelenskyy also dismissed the deputy head of his presidential office in charge of economic and energy policy, Rostislav Shurma, according to a decree published on his official website.

The shifts came after Ukraine’s energy chief Volodymyr Kudrytskyi was removed, but complaints followed about his departure being “politically motivated”.

The move heightened fears for the country’s electricity grid, since Kudrytskyi, who had led Ukrenergo since 2020, was a respected figure in the energy industry. His sudden exit was sharply criticised by senior MPs and analysts.

Some officials expressed concern to the FT that the moves were part of what they claimed were efforts by Zelenskyy to consolidate power inside his administration.