A wave of resignations: who may lose their positions in the Cabinet of Ministers, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General’s Office
22 April 2024 17:40
The Cabinet of Ministers and other government agencies are to be reset. Thus, personnel changes may take place in the government, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General’s Office, Komersant Ukrainsky 
reports.
The number of ministers who may lose their posts has increased. According to Kommersant Ukrainian, the Rada may dismiss three ministers this week.
In particular, the following ministers may resign: Deputy Prime Minister for Recovery Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Iryna Vereshchuk, Minister of Education and Science Oksen Lisovyi, Minister of Justice Denys Malyuska, and Minister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Solskyi.
“Deputy Prime Minister [Iryna] Vereshchuk and [Oleksandr] Kubrakov are definitely going to leave, but most likely also. The Ministry of Culture will be disbanded and merged somewhere. Oksen Lisovyi, the Minister of Education, is also likely to be dismissed.”
– MP Oleksiy Honcharenko named the names of potential candidates for dismissal from the government.
Resignations in the Cabinet of Ministers
Some media outlets reported that Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Iryna Vereshchuk was allegedly to be dismissed and appointed head of the Ternopil Regional Military Administration. She said the information was untrue.
“Firstly, it is not true. Secondly, I would not agree to this. And my management is well aware of this. I am not going to take any diplomatic post either,”
– she said.
TheMinister of Agrarian Policy Mykola Solsky may be dismissed due to the possibility of merging this ministry with the Ministry of Economy, which already happened in 2019 .
TheMinistry of Culture and Information Policy and the Ministry of Youth and Sportsmay also be subject to government cuts. It should be noted that the Ministry of Culture still has no head. The Verkhovna Rada dismissed Oleksandr Tkachenko on 27 July 2023. The next day, Rostyslav Karandieiev, the first deputy head of the Ministry, was appointed acting minister, but he has not yet lost the prefix “acting”.
The Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Oksen Lisovyi may also face resignation, as rumours that the Servant of the People party is dissatisfied with Lisovyi’s work have been circulating since last year.
As reported by Kommersant Ukrainian the highest political level has decided to dismiss Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Community, Territorial and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine, and Mustafa Masi Nayem, Head of the State Agency for the Restoration and Development of Infrastructure of Ukraine.
The dismissal of the two officials was discussed on the sidelines earlier, but the final decision to dismiss them arose from the situation with the construction of inadequate protection at some important critical infrastructure facilities.
Parliament is ready to consider the issue of Kubrakov and Nayem. A week ago, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada voted to summon Kubrakov and Nayyem to a meeting to discuss the protection of critical infrastructure following recent missile and drone attacks by Russia against such facilities.
Last week, the Ukrainian information space was filled with rumours of the resignation of Justice Minister Denys Malyuska. It is noted that as part of the government’s reform, it is planned to reduce the number of ministries by a third and the Ministry of Justice may be transferred to the Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine Olga Stefanishyna.
Earlier, Malyuska said he would resign if asked to do so by three people – his wife, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
“There are a lot of rumours, and I have always said from day one that I am not holding on to my seat. By the decision of the Parliament, I will certainly resign, but there are three other people whose words are enough for me to immediately write a statement and pack my things – the President, the Prime Minister and my wife,”
– he said.
Resignations in the SBU and the Prosecutor General’s Office
Personnel decisions from Bankova Street will not end with high-profile rotations in the Cabinet of Ministers. Changes in the security forces have long been discussed.
Sources of Kommersant Ukrayinsky law enforcement agencies reported that SBU head Vasyl Malyuk could be replaced by his current deputy, Oleksandr Poklad.
According to the source, Vasyl Malyuk wrote a letter of resignation immediately after the scandal with the surveillance of journalists of the Bigus.Info project broke. However, his report was put aside and a decision was made: “We are still working.”
While earlier, according to various sources, after Vasyl Maliuk’s dismissal from the SBU, his candidacy was allegedly considered for the post of Minister of Internal Affairs, now “the issue is no longer the same”.
Unlike the head of the SBU, the decision to resign the current Prosecutor General, Andriy Kostin, has been finally made and will be put to a vote in the Rada along with other personnel issues.
The Parliament may consider the resignation of the Prosecutor General as early as this week.
According to Kommersant Ukrayinskyy the Verkhovna Rada will have enough votes to dismiss Andriy Kostin.
The main contender for the post of the head of the Prosecutor General’s Office has been named by the media as the head of the Odesa Regional State Administration, former Kyiv City Prosecutor Oleh Kiper.
The latter, as confirmed by several sources, is close to the leadership of the OP.
“In particular, he has ‘an effective working relationship with the head of the OP Andrii Yermak’. He has also “proven himself well in various positions in recent years”,
– adds one of the Kommersant’ s sources
There are no plans to vote for Kiper at this time because there is no certainty that the Verkhovna Rada will have the required number of votes.
According to, it has been preliminarily decided that his first deputy, Oleksiy Khomenko, will act as Prosecutor General.
We would like to add that on 29 March, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Andriy Smirnov and Oleksiy Dniprov from their positions as deputy heads of the Presidential Office.
The following day, on 30 March, First Assistant to the President Serhiy Shefir, advisers Mykhailo Radutskyi, Serhiy Trofimov and Oleh Ustenko, as well as freelance commissioners for volunteer activities Natalia Pushkariova and for the rights of defenders Alyona Verbytska lost their positions.
