President Volodymyr Zelenskiy endorsed the head of the state energy company as Ukraine’s new prime minister on Wednesday, and lawmakers said he planned to replace his defense minister at a pivotal juncture in the war with Russia.
Zelenskiy pushed out Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko this week after just a year on the job. Parliament accepted her resignation on Tuesday and is expected to vote on her successor on Thursday. Zelenskiy has given little explanation for the move so far, apart from saying the aim is to refresh the leadership.
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, Zelenskiy said the CEO of the state-owned energy company Naftogaz, Sergii Koretskyi, was the best candidate for prime minister, because Ukraine’s priority was preparing for the upcoming winter.
“The priorities are clear – preparing for winter,” Zelenskiy said. “Therefore, following all the consultations, Sergii Koretskyi is surely the most prepared candidate for the post of prime minister of Ukraine.”
Outgoing Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko’s removal, after just a year in office, triggered the resignation of the whole government. Parliament names the prime minister and is likely to accept Zelenskiy’s preferred candidate as prime minister as his Servant of the People party controls a majority.
FOCUS ON THE DEFENCE MINISTRY IN WARTIME
But much of the focus on the changed government line-up was fixed on whether Zelenskiy would keep Mykhailo Fedorov, a 35-year-old tech expert, in the job of defense minister more than four years into the war with Russia.
Members of parliament, posting on social media after a meeting with the president, said he would appoint Ihor Klymenko, interior minister since 2023, to take on the defense portfolio.
Olha Vasylevska-Smahliuk, from Zelenskiy’s ruling Servant of the People party, said that Klymenko would be put forward for the job.
It was not immediately clear whether another government job would be offered to Fedorov, who, during his six-month tenure as defense minister, has led an ambitious campaign to transform Ukraine’s outmanned army into a more efficient fighting force.
Some lawmakers expressed dismay at Zelenskiy’s decision to replace Fedorov as defense minister just as Ukraine appears to be putting fresh pressure on Russia by long-range drone strikes on energy targets and by slowing its battlefield advances.
Oleksandr Merezhko, the chair of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and member of Zelenskiy’s party, expressed disappointment at the prospect of Fedorov being replaced.
“Fedorov… is highly respected amongst our international partners,” he said on social media. “His name was associated with hopes for genuine reforms within the Ministry of Defense.”
Maria Berlinska, a prominent volunteer and drone warfare advocate, said Fedorov’s replacement was “one of President Zelenskiy’s biggest mistakes.
“This decision by the president will not only cost us, it will cost us hugely. The price will be the lives and health of hundreds of thousands of people … if not more.”
The episode threatens to further dent public and parliamentary trust in Zelenskiy’s wartime leadership, just when Ukraine’s fortunes appear to be reversing.
Ukraine also still faces critical challenges like a shortage of air defenses and manpower.
Russia says it is on course to achieve its goals in the war, now in its fifth year.
As rumours swirled about Fedorov’s future, some lawmakers had suggested that parliament might not approve him given concerns crossing party lines.
Fedorov’s attempts to clean up defense procurement have angered parts of the establishment, his supporters say. He has also been criticized by some lawmakers for failing to deliver quickly enough on his pledge to reform recruitment.
Previously, as Ukraine’s first minister for digital transformation, Fedorov streamlined key state services into a now-ubiquitous app.
As defense minister, he has been credited with boosting drone procurement and pursuing a data-driven strategy of exhausting Russian forces.
Despite its success, Ukraine lacks U.S.-designed interceptors to shoot down the ballistic missiles that have rained down on major cities like Kyiv in greater numbers.
Officials are bracing for another winter of Russian strikes on the power grid.
Fedorov’s sprawling reforms to alleviate the army’s manpower shortage remain in progress, while abuse and mismanagement still plague the draft and some military units.
And on the battlefield, Russia is grinding toward Ukraine’s “fortress belt” of key cities in the eastern Donetsk region that Russian President Vladimir Putin is pushing to occupy in its entirety.