Zelenskyy suffers huge backlash as reshuffle triggers power-grab accusations

KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy triggered blowback in Kyiv on Wednesday as the parliament began the biggest reshuffle of government roles since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
As Moscow’s forces advance in Ukraine’s east and Kyiv lobbies Western allies to use their missiles on Russian territory, top opposition figures accused Zelenskyy of increasingly staffing government posts with a coterie of close allies and loyalists in a bid to consolidate power around his office.
His party won a majority in 2019, so Zelenskyy has the right to assemble the government. Martial law, which remains in effect while Ukraine battles Russia’s invasion, grants the president more powers and outlaws elections. However, some opponents say the president has overstepped.
“All the actions of the current authorities speak of the systematic centralization of power by the President and his office,” Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, a lawmaker from the European Solidarity opposition party, told POLITICO. “This flurry of resignations from government officials now speaks to a severe governance crisis in the country.”
Among those heading for the exit is popular Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who tendered his resignation, for as yet unexplained reasons, on Wednesday.
One former top Ukrainian official, who, like others in this story, was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the reshuffle, said Kuleba was likely ousted because of a clash with Zelenskyy’s powerful head of office, Andriy Yermak. “Everyone knew they had conflict. I once even witnessed an episode of it,” the official said.
“Due to his post, Kuleba had well-established direct contacts with [U.S. Secretary of State Antony] Blinken, with [German Foreign Minister Annalena] Baerbock, and many others. Even if he was 300 percent loyal, the president’s office could not leave such a communication channel in the hands of a person they are not fully sure is their person, if you know what I mean,” the official added. 
Although Zelenskyy relies on his top officials for guidance, Kyiv’s communication with Washington is primarily led by his own office — specifically by Yermak. Defense Minister Rustem Umerov is also close with the Biden administration and speaks often with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Those two men remain in place. Both visited Washington last week, meeting with top officials from the Biden administration. 
Officials and advisers to Zelenskyy told POLITICO that Kuleba, though he was known to many throughout the world and often appeared on television, has done little in the past year to advance Kyiv’s relationship with Washington or its ambitions on the battlefield. Instead, he’s been promoting his new book, they said.
Yermak and Kuleba did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.
Some Ukrainian government officials close to Zelenskyy and analysts dismissed the criticism and urged the opposition not to dramatize long-planned moves aimed at powering up the exhausted wartime government.
“Today we need new energy and these new steps are connected to strengthening our state in different directions,” Zelenskyy said during a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The reshuffle’s goal is to reload the government and — besides reappointing some fired ministers to other posts — fill in some long-vacant positions, like infrastructure, culture, agriculture and veteran affairs posts, according to a Ukrainian official close to Zelenskyy.
“Zelenskyy’s ruling style is to reshuffle the government from time to time, to make them more energetic and effective,” Volodymyr Fesenko, political analyst of the Ukrainian Penta Center of Political Research, told POLITICO. “Just see what happened with young reformer [Oleksandr] Kamyshin, who took over the strategic industries ministry from an ineffective former minister and in only a year managed to triple domestic weapons production. 
“Now he’s Zelenskyy’s darling, so he took him closer,” Fesenko said.
Fall will be extremely important for Ukraine. Its state institutions — including the government and president’s office — must be bolstered, Zelenskyy said in a statement Tuesday.
Late on Wednesday David Arakhamia, parliamentary head of Zelenskyy’s centrist Servant of the People party, announced lawmakers including Zelenskyy had had a meeting during which they decided on key new candidates.
Andriy Sybiha, current deputy foreign minister and former deputy head of president’s office, will take over from Kuleba. 
Another president’s office deputy Oleksiy Kuleba will become deputy prime minister and the minister of infrastructure and regional policy, while Olga Stefanishyna will become also justice minister while keeping her post as deputy prime minister for EU integration.
Mykola Tochytskyi, also a deputy in the president’s office, will become the new minister of culture and information policy to strengthen the fight against disinformation.
Kamyshin will go to the presidents office, where he will continue to deal with the issue of armaments and infrastructure. Herman Smetanin, current CEO of state arms company Ukroboronprom will replace him as minister for strategic industries.
“Ukraine is rich with talents. I believe we have to listen to the president’s position and with whom it is more comfortable for him to work,” Oleksandr Merezhko, a lawmaker from Servant of the People and head of the foreign relations committee in the parliament, told POLITICO.
“It is not true that only the people close to the office are being given top government positions,” Merezhko said, citing the example of Defense Minister Umerov, who hails from the liberal, pro-European Holos party.
“Of course, we have limitations of freedoms and democracy during war, like the lack of elections, which are forbidden by martial law,” political researcher Fesenko said.
“But at the same time the system that Zelenskyy has now so far allowed us to stand against brutal invasion, and consolidate foreign support,” he continued. “Unfortunately, it is impossible to stay completely democratic during such war.”
That rationale doesn’t totally work for Zelenskyy’s domestic opponents, who think the president has overstepped with his latest maneuver and want a more representative government as Russia’s war grinds on.
“We would need the salvation government at this point, not even unity,” Klympush-Tsintsadze said. “But we would only agree to cooperate if Ukraine’s government will return to the rule of law, as even war is not an excuse.”
Ukraine has a history of corruption, and the U.S. has at various points in time advocated that Kyiv do more to vet its officials and to crack down on political and financial indiscretions. 
Biden’s team has previously pushed Kyiv to incorporate more voices from civil society in its government.
Yaroslav Zhelezhyak, MP from the Holos Party, slammed the lack of new faces in a post on Facebook. 
“Zelenskyy says new energy is needed, but have you noticed that in this ‘great re-introduced order’ there is still no new person in sight?” the MP asked. “All the changes are just a rotation among people who are already” in the government.
For now, Western allies haven’t publicly voiced much criticism of Zelenskyy and the Kyiv administration, despite some unease at the impression the president is stuffing his government with loyalists. 
In the U.S., administration officials were cagey about their feelings on the shake-up.
“There may be reasons for concern,” said a senior administration official, declining to provide further details. That comment came only after the official was granted anonymity to be candid.
The war, observers in Kyiv say, is a more-than legitimate reason for moves that might be viewed differently in peace time, however.
“Even with all the criticism with Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Yermak becoming too powerful, we see partners are still helping us. Because they understand our situation. They understand that Ukraine will get a democracy reboot as soon as war is over and elections are held,” the analyst Fesenko said.
Nahal Toosi and Erin Banco contributed to this report.
This article has been updated to amend an incorrectly transcribed quote.