Kyiv: Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba resigned on Wednesday as part of the biggest government reshuffle in the 30-month war against Russia. Kuleba's resignation was confirmed by Ukraine's parliament speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, a day after five ministers tendered their resignations post Russia's devastating attack on Poltava town that killed 50 people.
More resignations and appointments are expected over the coming days in what a senior ally of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy termed the start of a "major government reset" as the war enters a crucial juncture. The speaker said lawmakers would shortly discuss the request. Parliament expects to vote on the resignations later on Wednesday in what is usually a political formality.
Zelenskyy said changes to the government, which come at a crucial juncture in the full-scale conflict, are necessary to strengthen it and achieve the results needed by Ukraine. "Autumn will be extremely important for Ukraine. And our state institutions should be configured so that Ukraine achieves all the results that we need - for all of us," he said on Tuesday.
Resignations of several Ukrainian ministers
Ukraine's minister in charge of arms production and four other ministers of Zelenskyy's cabinet resigned on Tuesday in the major government shake-up. The resignation of these five ministers as Russia launched two ballistic missiles in Ukraine's Poltava town, killing 50 and wounding 271 others.
The resignations of Strategic Industries Minister Oleksandr Kamyshin, Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna and the justice, environment and reintegration ministers left over a third of the cabinet vacant. Zelenskyy is expected to fill the positions to create order before he travels to the United States again this month to present a "victory plan" to US President Joe Biden.
Kamyshin, Ukraine's arms chief, has spearheaded Ukraine's effort to ramp up defence production of everything from attack drones to long-range missiles to battle Russia. "I will continue working in the defence sector but in a different role," he said on his Telegram handle on Tuesday. Under his tenure, Ukraine has produced thousands of long-range drones to attack Russia. Furthermore, Zelenskyy also dismissed Rostyslav Shurma, one of his deputy chiefs of staff whose portfolio is the economy, according to a decree published on the presidential website.
Russia pushes offensive in Ukraine
Following Russia's attack on Poltava, Zelenskyy said, "The Russian scum will surely pay for this strike. We continue to urge everyone in the world who has the power to stop this terror: Ukraine needs air defence systems and missiles now, not sitting in storage." Meanwhile, a Russian attack on Ukraine's western city of Lviv killed three people and injured over 30 others, officials said on Wednesday.
Russia has been pounding Ukraine with hundreds of missiles and drones in the past 10 days, in what some Russian military bloggers call Moscow's response to Kyiv's recent incursion in its territory. Moscow has often said its strikes target Ukraine's military, energy and transport infrastructure, not civilians.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin on Wednesday said Russia was adjusting its nuclear doctrine because the United States and its Western allies were threatening Russia by escalating the war in Ukraine and undermining Moscow's legitimate security interests. The nuclear doctrine sets out the circumstances under which Moscow would use such weapons.
The West had rejected dialogue with Russia and taken a line of attack against its security interests while stoking "the hot war in Ukraine", said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov. "It is the United States that is the ringmaster of the process of provoking tension," he said. Russia and the United States are by far the world's biggest nuclear powers, holding about 88% of the world's nuclear weapons.
(with agency input)
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