At least one third of third of cabinet positions in Ukraine are vacant after several ministers resigned. Image source: Chad J. McNeeley / U.S. Secretary of Defense, via Flickr.
Ukraine is facing a major government shakeup after at least six ministers stepped down and a presidential aide was fired on Tuesday 3 September.
The officials who resigned include Strategic Industries Minister Oleksandr Kamyshin, Deputy Prime Ministers Olha Stefanishyna and Iryna Vereshchuk, Justice Minister Denys Maliuska, Ecology Minister Ruslan Strilets, and State Property Fund head Vitaliy Koval.
The ministers have not specified their reasons for leaving.
Kamyshin, who was appointed in March 2023 and oversaw weapons production, said he expected to take another role in defence.
Last week, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he planned a major government reshuffle.
Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party leader Davyd Arakhamia said there would be a “major government reset” affecting more than half of the government’s staff.
“Tomorrow is the day of dismissals, and the day after that is the day of appointments,” said Arakhamia.
A decree on the presidential website reported Zelenskyy had also dismissed Rostyslav Shurma, a deputy chief of staff responsible for the economy.
Since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Zelenskyy has ordered several government reshuffles.
Zelenskyy sacked Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhnyi in February as well as Deputy Prime Minister for Reconstruction Oleksandr Kubrakov and Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi in May.
About one third of cabinet positions are now vacant following Tuesday’s wave of resignation and the earlier sackings.
At least five government portfolios, including agriculture and infrastructure, have remained vacant since ministers were fired or resigned.
Opposition lawmaker Iryna Herashchenko criticised the reshuffle, saying, “It’s a government without ministers… an intellectual and personnel crisis that the authorities are closing their eyes to.”
The shakeup comes at a critical juncture in the war with Russia as Ukraine advances into the Kursk region near the Russian border while Russia makes gains in the east of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy’s term as president was scheduled to end in May this year — however, he has remained in the role as Ukraine is currently under martial law.
He is scheduled to visit the United States this month to present a “victory plan” to US President Joe Biden.
