Some Dust Settles After Day One of Ukraine’s Government Overhaul

Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, approved the resignation of Minister for Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin, the Minister of Justice Denys Maliuska, the Minister of European Integration Olha Stefanishyna, and the Minister of Environmental Protection Ruslan Strilets on Wednesday, Sept. 4.

Out of seven submitted resignations announced by the parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, Ukrainian lawmakers agreed to four.

Minister for Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin is reportedly joining the President’s Office in place of Rostyslav Shurma, a top aide in President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, dismissed by presidential decree a day before.

Justice Minister Maliuska is exhausted after his tenure in the office from 2019, a source familiar with the matter told Kyiv Post, indicating this is the reason for his resignation.

According to the Kyiv Post source in the government, Stefanishyna is supposed to take over the role in the Ministry of Justice and join it with the Ministry of European Integration since the process of the EU accession is closely tied to reviewing and rewriting legislation to make it adhere to EU law. 

During the parliament session where Ukraine’s lawmakers voted for Maliuska’s resignation, Maliuska was greeted with applause as he came to report about his tenure and what was done, member of parliament Yaroslav Zheleznyak posted in his blog.

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Svitlana Hrynchuk is reportedly slated to head the Environmental Protection Ministry instead – she is now the deputy minister of energy, Zheleznyak wrote. 

Ukraine’ s Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, also submitted his resignation, Ruslan Stefanchuk, Ukraine’s speaker of parliament said. But the lawmakers postponed the vote on him without explanation. 

Stefanchuk received resignations from other ministers but their decisions did not meet support in parliament – among which resignations of the head of Ukraine’s State Property Fund, Vitaliy Koval, and Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk. 

Day two of the government reshuffle is upcoming, Zheleznyak said. 

“It is only temporary. Now the parliamentarians are negotiating and tomorrow they will also be voted in the parliament. Also tonight, there will be a meeting of the ‘Servant of the People’ party faction, where they will be told who they formally arrange into a coalition of new ministers,” he wrote in his blog.