Hobbling in the middle of the war

Why does Zelensky change the prime minister and conducts permutations in the government of Ukraine. Explains the Sobror "New-Europe" in Kyiv

A quote from the traditional evening television of the President of Zelensky would fit for the “Solve” issue:

-Today I spoke with Yulia Sviridenko: I suggested that she lead the Ukrainian government and update his work on the basis of the experience of supporting Ukrainian production, Ukrainian entrepreneurship, which Julia has as the first deputy prime minister and Minister of Economics. The colossal experience of Denis Shmygal will definitely be useful in the position of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine: it is in this area that the maximum resources of the country, the maximum of tasks and a lot of responsibility. I count on sufficient support to the people's deputies of the new configuration of the Government of Ukraine. And it is important that the government quickly audit all agreements with our partners: what works and what requires revision or activation. ”

The cause of personnel rotations, according to Zelensky, was the need for “managerial transformation”: updating the executive branch, optimizing government spending and revitalizing economic reforms in order to strengthen the stamina of the state in war conditions. Not a word about the Dog name Ilona Mask, but it was a breeze ... And immediately at the top of the cabinet of ministers.

In the history of independent Ukraine, parliamentary-presidential, I recall, republics, premiere often meant only the beginning of the struggle for the presidential chair: the appetite to the authorities woke up. This path was successfully made by Leonid Kuchma, Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych. Although those who, despite his efforts, were not given, were more.

How can one not recall the premiere of Yulia Tymoshenko twice, politics to the tip of the famous braid. She ran three times in the presidential election, and is now sitting in the Rada at the head of the Father's Field of the Fatherland. Until now, the name "Julia" in Ukrainian politics does not require a surname, and the opposition "Fatherland" has not been raped from voting "for" along with the presidential faction, if that. But on the day when, it seems, all the leaders of the opinions, Yulia Tymoshenko posted on the appropriateness of the upcoming changes in the government’s leadership, posted a picture on her Facebook page: the US president in military uniform with Trump's patch under the blue-yellow flag, on the Maidan, in Kiev. And comment: “Finally, the good news that we have been waiting for so long! Thanks to President Trump, our American friends and partners. So the voice of power sounds. " A flair has always been a strong side of Julia Vladimirovna. Zelensky’s personnel blitzkrieg could well mean the implementation of a package of certain agreements reached between Kiev and Washington.

The characteristic of the 39-year-old namesake Tymoshenko-Yulia Sviridenko- gave the popular Ukrainian publication “LB.ua”: “Economist, technocrats, negotiator”. She worked in business, in key positions in the Chernihiv regional state administration, then for about a year - as a deputy head of the head of the president of Ukraine. Three months before the big war, the Rada appointed Yulia Sviridenko the first deputy prime minister-minister of economics. It was she who on April 30, 2025 in Washington signed with the Minister of Finance of the United States Scott Bessent the sensational unlimited “subsoil agreement”-a document on the creation of the American-Ukrainian Investment Fund for Restoration. A number of experts then qualified Yulia Sviridenko as a thorough performer, but a non -independent unit dependent on the president’s office.

Julia already thanked through Facebook by the President of Zelensky for the trust rendered - "and for the opportunity to serve Ukraine at this decisive hour." The main tasks of the updated government called the strengthening of economic potential, expanding Ukrainians support programs and scaling their own weapons. And the tools to achieve these goals are significant deregulation, eliminate any bureaucratic obstacle, protect entrepreneurship and complete concentration of state resources for the defense of Ukraine and recovery after hostilities. In the end, Sviridenko reminded the readers that the Verkhovna Rada makes the decision to appoint the prime minister. But she concluded: “I will announce proposals regarding the candidates of members of the government soon.”

Among Ukrainian prime ministers, people without pronounced political ambitions met.

This worked easier and longer, which is not a synonym for words more effective. Just the presidents and the environment, as well as the opposition, did not see competitors in them.

The current Prime Minister Denis Shmygal here must be recognized as a champion: five years in a row for positions, of which more than three military years. He avoided large scandals, did not allow obvious mistakes, although the story with the failed construction to protect the unique objects from the shelling then angered Zelensky.

Outwardly, the head of the European Council of Charles Michel as a twin brother (also the same time), Shmygal back in March 2022 announced that the Ukrainian economy was becoming military rails. And he repeated his thesis-“The economy works on military rails”-in February 2025, during a meeting with Keit Kelllog, special representative of the US president.

The transfer of Shmygal to the post of Minister of Defense should be perceived as a challenge: now, now feel the successes of national defense production, achieved in five years. Or is it still about faith in the manager-universal soldier? Moreover, Rustem Umarov, the current minister, according to the “suspension” information received from the president’s office, will soon leave the office, where he had been infrequently before. Umarov is the only candidate of the President of Zelensky for the position of Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States. “The mystery, why he was kept for so long ... He was engaged in semi -dodmatic work, let's call it this, was constantly abroad,” said Sergey Rakhmanin, a member of the Parliamentary Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, in an interview with Radio NV. The deputy admitted that Rustem Umarov obviously corresponded to the tasks that the president or office of the president set before him, but he almost did not deal with the work of the defense department. Observers also say: after the scandal with the relevant minister, the Ministry of National Unity will be liquidated, the Ministry of Social Policy will merge with the Ministry of Veterans, the Ministry of Economics will “absorb” agrarian policy and ecology, and so on.

Never before the premiere and the change of government in Ukraine have yet been at the assault pace, in social networks and with the complete elimination of bureaucratic obstacles, including the Constitution! No, without irony: according to the Constitution, it is the parliamentary majority who offers the president the prime minister for introducing to the Rada, and not vice versa.

To thank the trust and promising the new composition of the Cabinet of Ministers at the “living” premiere is also somehow strange ... Moreover, the farewell post has not yet appeared on the Facebook page of Denis Shmygal.

It is difficult to convey the degree of indignation of the parliamentary opposition in the person of the “European solidarity”, the political party of Petro Poroshenko, about the current, and even more the coming “government of the national disaster”. Since the beginning of a large war, the “European solidarity” has repeatedly insisted on creating a government of national salvation, which, by default, of course, - Petro Poroshenko would lead. But in Zelensky, the Speakers of the EU repeated , only political repressions on the mind. And now he has completely turned into a “unconstitutional monarch”!

I found an explanation of what was happening on Facebook page by the lawyer Andrei Mahar, a long-term deputy head of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine. Mager notes that it is possible to change the government during martial law in the country: this is an appointed, and not elected (citizens) composition of the highest state body. From a legal point of view, he continues, the actions of the president (in fact, the presentation of the new prime minister, while the previous one at his workplace) is incorrect. At the same time, the head of state, according to the Constitution, offers candidates for the posts of foreign ministers and defense, and the Prime Minister offers the Rada on his own initiative.

“But from a political point of view, the name of any premiere’s current (ninth) convocation will not be important,” writes Andrei Mager. “Why so? Because in the mixed form of the republic (which, without a doubt, is Ukraine), when the President’s party receives the absolute majority in parliament, the figure of the head of government is extremely technical and devoid of subjectivity in a political dimension. Such a prime minister will always be a puppet of the president. And for the activities of this prime minister and the cabinet he headed, the president always bear political responsibility. ”

I’ll finish another quote - from the Ukrainian publication of the book of the Time magazine, Simon Schuster Schuster.

It is not applause and delight, not glory that she came along with the post, not even respect and adoration of millions in Ukraine. All this Zelensky had a showman in a last life. Now he was striving for another. He had the intention to break the circle of imperial oppression, which began long before the birth of Zelensky himself. Now it was his goal, and he has long overcome his fear and took the path to her.

“Later we will be judged,” Zelensky said. - I have not completed this big, important thing for the whole country. I haven't completed it yet.

According to the sources of Ukrainian Pravda, Rada plans to resign the government on Wednesday, July 16, and appoint new ministers the next day, that is, July 17, on Thursday.