Zelenskyy shakes up Ukrainian government, with US weapons on the way

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is reshuffling the government as his country’s war with Russia rages more than three years after it began. 

First Deputy Prime Minister and Economic Minister Yulia Svyrydenko has been tapped to lead the next government as prime minister. Meanwhile, current Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal is set to serve as the country’s next defense minister.

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Zelenskyy named Svyrydenko as his pick for prime minister in a post on X saying the two met to discuss goals for the country.

“We also discussed concrete measures to boost Ukraine’s economic potential, expand support programs for Ukrainians, and scale up our domestic weapons production. In pursuit of this goal, we are initiating a transformation of the executive branch in Ukraine. I have proposed that Yuliia Svyrydenko lead the government of Ukraine and significantly renew its work. I look forward to the presentation of the new government’s action plan in the near future,” Zelenskyy wrote on Monday.

Svyrydenko thanked Zelenskyy in her own post on X, and laid out the “priority tasks” defined by the president, including strengthening the economy, increasing domestic weapons production and expanding government support programs.

“These tasks can be achieved through tangible deregulation, the elimination of bureaucratic obstacles, the reduction of non-critical state expenditures and duplication of functions within state institutions, the protection of entrepreneurship, and the full concentration of state resources for the defense of Ukraine and recovery after hostilities,” Svyrydenko wrote.

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In Ukraine, the president nominates the country’s prime minister, but the appointment must be approved by the Verkhovna Rada, the country’s parliament, to become official.

On Tuesday, Zelenskyy said he held a meeting with Svyrydenko and Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for Innovations, Development of Education, Science and Technologies Mykhailo Fedorov to discuss “key priorities” for the next government. These include what he laid out for Svyrydenko as well as “fully contracting the required volumes of all types of drones” Ukranian forces need.

Outgoing prime minister Shmyhal, who has served in the role since 2020, is set to replace current Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, whom Zelenskyy reportedly suggested would become the country’s next ambassador to the U.S., according to Reuters.

Zelenskyy praised Shmyhal — the country’s longest-serving head of government since it gained independence in 1991— for his “vast experience,” according to reports.