Mykhailo Podolyak, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, says some cabinet ministers were replaced in order to maximize the government’s effectiveness, while others were leaving because of the stress of serving through years of war.Olga Ivashchenko/The Globe and Mail
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has launched his biggest cabinet shuffle in more than 30 months of war, seeking to convince allies in the West that his country can emerge victorious even as Russia escalates its attacks on Ukrainian cities.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a key aide to Mr. Zelensky, described the shakeup – which saw seven cabinet ministers tender their resignations over Tuesday and Wednesday – as a needed refresh for a government that is now in the sixth year of what was supposed to be a five-year term. Presidential and parliamentary elections, which were supposed to be held this year, have been suspended under the martial law Mr. Zelensky decreed on the first day of the Russian invasion in February, 2022.
The most prominent name to hand in their resignation was Dmytro Kuleba, who has served as the country’s foreign-affairs minister since 2020 and is seen as a trusted figure by Western governments. Also stepping down were Olha Stefanishyna, the deputy prime minister responsible for overseeing Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, and Iryna Vereshchuk, the deputy prime minister charged with reintegrating Ukrainian territories that have been liberated from Russian occupation. Oleksandr Kamyshin, who as minister of strategic industries led the drive to ramp up the country’s military production, also resigned, as did justice minister Denys Malyuska.
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Mr. Zelensky was expected to name their replacements as early as Thursday.
“We must strengthen some areas of the government, and changes in its makeup have been prepared,” Mr. Zelensky said in a video address Tuesday night, adding that there would also be changes within his own office. On Wednesday, he dismissed his deputy chief of staff, Rostyslav Shurma, who had been overseeing economic policy.
Mr. Podolyak told The Globe and Mail that some ministers needed to be replaced in order to maximize the government’s effectiveness, while others were leaving their posts because of the stress and fatigue that have come with serving in high-pressure posts through more than 2½ years of war.
“Because the war limits electoral opportunities, the executive branch of government needs to be constantly kept in tune, because the challenges are constantly changing. Another phase of the war is going on now,” Mr. Podolyak said in an interview in central Kyiv.
Some of the ministers who resigned would be offered other posts in the government, he said, while others simply needed a break. “People burn out – and this is understandable when they are constantly under stress.”
Critics, however, saw Mr. Zelensky as dismissing relatively independent figures, such as Mr. Kuleba, while expanding the power of his own office and that of his controversial chief of staff, Andriy Yermak.
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Peter Zalmayev, head of the Eurasian Democracy Initiative, a Kyiv-based think tank, said Mr. Yermak had been playing the role of de facto foreign-affairs minister in recent months, travelling to Washington to meet directly with White House officials. “On foreign visits, Yermak has been playing a bigger role, while it’s unclear what, if any, role the Foreign Minister plays,” Mr. Zalmayev said. “Some capitals would rather see Yermak dismissed than any of these ministers, but Yermak is somehow impregnable.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the cabinet shuffle in Kyiv would have “no impact” on the possibility of peace talks. Russia says Ukraine’s month-old incursion into the Kursk region – in which Ukrainian troops rapidly seized about 1,300 square kilometres of Russian territory – has made it impossible to hold negotiations with Mr. Zelensky’s government. Russian forces occupy more than 100,000 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory.
Instead of talking peace, Mr. Peskov said Wednesday that Russia was revising its nuclear doctrine “against the backdrop of the challenges and threats provoked by the countries of the so-called collective West.” He did not specify how Russia intended to alter its policy regarding the use of its arsenal of nuclear weapons, which is the largest in the world.
Russia’s current policy, drafted in 2020, says nuclear arms can only be used in “extreme and compelled” circumstances – specifically, in response to the use of nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction against Russia or “when the very existence of the state is in jeopardy.”
The Kremlin has responded to the Kursk incursion by pushing ahead with its own grinding offensive in Ukraine’s southeastern Donbas region and by escalating air attacks on cities across Ukraine. On Wednesday morning it launched a large-scale barrage of drones and missiles, largely targeting the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where seven people were killed – including a mother and three children who were killed in their home, with only the father surviving. A pair of cruise missiles struck near the city’s main railway station, damaging 50 buildings.
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The attack on Lviv came less than 24 hours after at least 53 people, most of them believed to be cadets, were killed in a missile attack on a military communications academy in the central city of Poltava. The Poltava death toll was one of the highest Ukraine has suffered in the war, and Mr. Zelensky has promised a full investigation.
Mr. Podolyak said Russia is abandoning any previous restraints in its attacks on Ukrainian cities in an apparent attempt to break the national will.
“They are deliberately attacking the city centres, where there are many buildings, where there are certain social infrastructure objects, not even critical infrastructure, where there are no factories, only a school, institute or hospital. Why do they do this? To cause the maximum shock reaction from us. In order for us to become even more depressed and start saying: ‘Yes, let’s agree to Russian surrender on any terms, surrender on Russia’s terms.’”