Who will leave and who will stay: the Rada has named a possible cabinet line-up, with the biggest question mark remaining over the new defence minister
MP Oleksiy Honcharenko has published a probable list of the future composition of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. He noted that it is not yet known who will become Minister for Reconstruction, Infrastructure and Transport, nor did he specify who will head the Ministry of Defence.
However, following reports of the dismissal of Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, reports began to appear in the media suggesting that the current Minister of the Interior, Ihor Klymenko, could become the new head of the Ministry of Defence.
Why was Fedorov removed from his post as Defence Minister?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy explained to MPs from the “Servant of the People” faction that he had decided to dismiss Mykhailo Fedorov from his post as Defence Minister due to a long-standing conflict between him and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi.
Zelenskyy cited the impossibility of continuing to tolerate the conflict between the leadership of the Ministry of Defence and the General Staff as the main reason for this personnel decision.
According to MPs, the President explained that Fedorov and the military command have differing views on the development of the defence sector. One of those present relayed the Head of State’s words as follows:
“They live in two different worlds. Misha wants to digitise everything, to build a system centred on technology. The military, however, simply want to be heard. They are asking for a specific range of weapons to be procured, but he refuses and is channelling funding into other areas. They have simply stopped listening to one another,” wrote “Ukrainska Pravda”, citing its own sources.
According to another source, the disputes between the parties concerned the provision of support for specific military operations. According to those interviewed, Zelenskyy emphasised that he could not allow a situation where the Ministry of Defence and the General Staff were effectively in conflict.
“Ideally, both should be replaced. But I cannot do that at the same time,” the president reportedly told MPs.
In addition, the head of state expressed dissatisfaction that Fedorov had failed to implement the promised mobilisation reform. One of the MPs also relayed Zelenskyy’s remarks on the need to resolve the mobilisation issue as quickly as possible against the backdrop of a possible escalation by Russia.
Candidates for posts in the new government
- Prime Minister — Serhiy Fedorovych Koretskyi.
- First Deputy Prime Minister — Minister of Energy Denys Anatoliyovych Shmyhal.
- Deputy Prime Minister for Ukraine’s European and Euro-Atlantic Integration — Vsevolod Valeriyovych Chentsov.
- Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy — Minister of Culture — Tetiana Vasylivna Berezhna.
- Minister of Defence — no candidate has yet been nominated.
- Minister for Reconstruction, Infrastructure and Transport — no candidate has yet been nominated.
- Minister for Communities, Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine — Vitalii Yuriiovych Bezgin.
- Minister for Youth and Sport — Matvii Viktorovych Bidnyi.
- Minister for Veterans’ Affairs — Vitalii Oleksandrovych Kim.
- Minister of the Interior — Ivan Mykhailovych Vygivskyi.
- Minister of Education and Science — Andrii Petrovych Butenko.
- Minister of Health — Viktor Kirillovich Lyashko.
- Minister of Finance — Serhiy Mykhailovych Marchenko.
- Minister for the Economy and the Environment — Oleksandr Serhiyovych Kravchenko.
- Minister for Agricultural Policy and Food — Taras Mykolayovych Vysotskyi.
- Minister for Social Policy, Family and Unity — Denis Valeryevich Ulyutin.
- Minister of Justice — Denis Vyacheslavovich Maslov.
- Minister for Digital Transformation — Oksana Vitaliivna Ferchuk.
It should be recalled that on 12 July, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced plans for a major reshuffle of the Cabinet of Ministers. On 16 July, Serhiy Koretskyi, head of Naftogaz, replaced Yulia Svyrydenko as Prime Minister.
The new government also plans to split a number of ministries, in particular the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development into the Ministry of Regional Development (candidate: Bezgin) and the Ministry of Infrastructure (presumably one of the heads of the regional state administrations), as well as splitting the Ministry of Economy — Oleksiy Sobolev will be responsible for the economy and the environment, whilst Taras Vysotskyi will head a separate Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak (the “Holos” faction) previously stated that Denys Shmyhal, Tetiana Berezhna, Serhiy Marchenko, Viktor Lyashko, Matvii Bidnyi, Andrii Sibiga and Ihor Klymenko are likely to remain in the revamped Cabinet of Ministers, whilst Oksen Lisovyi, Denys Ulyutin, Nataliia Kalmykova, Taras Kachka, Oleksii Kuleba and Oleksii Sobolev may leave the government.
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