Zelenskyy attributed the personnel changes to preparations for winter and problematic coordination between the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces of Ukraine command
He said this in an interview with Sky News.
Zelenskyy noted that at present no one can predict what the coming winter in Ukraine will be like — “difficult or even worse”. Therefore, according to the president, he needed a prime minister who was deeply focused on energy issues.
On 16 July, Serhiy Koretskyi became the new prime minister — prior to this, he had been chairman of the board at Naftogaz, and had also headed the companies Ukrnafta and UkrTatNafta.
Furthermore, according to Zelenskyy, there had allegedly been a lack of understanding between the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces and the Minister of Defence for several months.
“I don’t have time for negotiations. There is no time to listen first to one side and then to the other, because they both need to coordinate not just daily, but hourly, until our skies are protected. I must not have to sort out who is right and who is wrong,” said the president.
Among the main challenges requiring immediate and concerted action by both departments, Zelenskyy cited new approaches to mobilisation against the backdrop of the risk that Russia could call up as many as 500,000 new conscripts this autumn, as well as the lack of defences against Russian ballistic missiles.
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