FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a meeting with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda during the events dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz in Oswiecim, Poland January 27, 2020. Adrianna Bochenek/Agencja Gazeta via REUTERS
March 4, 2020
By Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets
KIEV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s party is set to promote some experienced hands in a sweeping reshuffle on Wednesday, as it ditches a cabinet run by the country’s youngest ever prime minister six months into its term.
The 35-year-old Oleksiy Honcharuk is expected to be replaced by deputy prime minister Denys Shmygal, who used to work for DTEK, Ukraine’s largest energy group, owned by the country’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov. Finance Minister Oksana Markarova could be axed for Ihor Umansky, who was acting finance minister a decade ago under Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Health Minister Zoriana Skaletska, who grabbed headlines last month by joining coronavirus evacuees from China in quarantine in an act of solidarity, could be swapped for a former health minister under President Viktor Yanukovich.
The reshuffle, which could also see the departure of the foreign minister, defense minister and prosecutor general, signals a switch of direction for Zelenskiy who came to power promising to clean up corruption and a new type of politics.
It also throws into focus Ukraine’s commitment to reforms at a time when it is trying to finalize a new loan program from the International Monetary Fund that is seen as crucial to economic stability and investor confidence.
Hlib Vyshlinsky, Executive Director at the Centre for Economic Strategy think tank, suggested the reshuffle would delay talks with the IMF.
Vyshlinsky also pointed to comments made by Umansky last year about the need to change the leadership of the central bank because it was not lowering interest rates fast enough, saying such remarks were likely to play badly with the IMF.
An actor with no political experience who played a fictional president in a comedy series, Zelenskiy swept to power in a landslide presidential election win last year, pitching himself as an everyman outsider who would bring new faces into politics.
But his administration’s popularity has sagged after patchy progress on a commitment to end the war against Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Donbass region and to fight high-level graft.
Lawmakers from Zelenskiy’s party told Reuters that cooperation with the IMF would continue.
“There was a requirement for new politicians not only to be new, but also to be professionals,” lawmaker Iryna Vereshchuk said. “If there is no such connection, if it has not worked, then we should rely on more experienced ones.”
Honcharuk’s position has been under scrutiny since the leak in January of a recording that suggested he had made unflattering comments about Zelenskiy.
The prime minister’s government has also tussled with Ihor Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine’s wealthiest tycoons, who has been fighting to reverse the 2016 nationalization of his former bank PrivatBank, the country’s largest lender. Zelenskiy, whose TV show became a hit on a station owned by Kolomoisky, denies that his business ties with the tycoon influence policy decisions.
(Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Peter Graff)
