Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has resigned as part of a wide-ranging government reshuffle designed to give what Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called “new strength” to the embattled country.
Kuleba’s departure, announced in a handwritten note, came as Russia continued its relentless air barrage. At least seven people died and 53 were injured in a missile strike in the western city of Lviv.
Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv, said three of the seven dead were children. The attack took place in Lviv’s historic centre, usually considered a safe zone.
After today’s 🇷🇺 attack, the only person in this photo who survived is the man.
— Андрій Садовий (@AndriySadovyi) September 4, 2024
Mother Yevheniya and her three daughters — Yaryna, Daryna, and Emiliya — were killed.
Standing in the back is Yaryna Bazylevych. She was 21 y.o. Yaryna worked in our office for “Youth Capital 2025” pic.twitter.com/XmSU3FPEbS
Sadovyi posted a photo of a family killed in their home: a mother, Yevheniya, and her three daughters, Yaryna, Daryna and Emiliya. Their father, Yaroslav, was the only survivor. Rescuers treated his injuries as he stood in the street outside their ruined apartment.
The mayor said Yaryna Bazylevych, 21, had worked in his office on a youth project. Her 18-year-old sister Daryna was a second-year student at Lviv’s Catholic university. Firefighters found the body of Emiliya, nine, buried under rubble.
“Russia used missiles and drones to attack people in their homes while they were sleeping at night. Ordinary homes, schools, and hospitals were hit,” Kuleba posted on X shortly after he announced his resignation.
He said heritage buildings in Lviv’s Unesco-protected zone were also damaged in “Russia’s war crime against civilians”. A further six people were hurt on Wednesday in another Russian attack on Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskiy’s home city.
Several European foreign ministers praised Kuleba after his resignation. They included Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s foreign minister, who said he had put the people of Ukraine before himself. She recalled their “long conversations on night trains, at the G7, on the frontlines, in Brussels, [and] in front of a bombed-out power plant”.
Speaking in a video address on Tuesday evening, Zelenskiy said he was refreshing his team in anticipation of “an extremely important autumn”. He promised “a slightly different emphasis” in foreign and domestic policy.
There was speculation that Andriy Sybiha, the deputy head of the office of the president of Ukraine, was likely to replace Kuleba. Sybiha is a veteran diplomat who has served as ambassador to Turkey and at Ukraine’s embassy in Poland. He works under Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenskiy’s office.
Long conversations on night trains, at the G7, on the frontlines, in Brussels, in front of a bombed-out power plant. There are few people I've worked as closely with as you, @DmytroKuleba. You put the people of your country before yourself. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/e8j9f4MF2w
— Außenministerin Annalena Baerbock (@ABaerbock) September 4, 2024
Several ministers in Kyiv have already submitted letters of resignation, and a presidential aide has been dismissed. It is the biggest shake-up of senior officials since the beginning of Russia’s 2022 invasion, and had been expected for months.
The reshuffle has been portrayed as a political reset engineered by Zelenskiy and his close circle before winter, which is expected to bring electricity shortages after Russian strikes on critical infrastructure and difficult news from the front.
Zelenskiy said in a Tuesday evening address that changes would be made to strengthen the government. He said: “The autumn will be extremely important for Ukraine. And our state institutions must be set up so that Ukraine achieves all the results that we need … We must strengthen some areas in the government, and personnel decisions have been prepared.”
On Wednesday he held talks with the Irish taoiseach, Simon Harris, who was visiting Kyiv. The two leaders signed a bilateral deal and Zelenskiy thanked Ireland for taking in more than 100,000 Ukrainian citizens.
Other senior ministers who submitted resignations were Olha Stefanishyna, the deputy prime minister in charge of leading Ukraine’s push to join the EU, and Oleksandr Kamyshin, the minister for strategic industries, who oversees arms production and development. The justice minister, Denys Maliuska, and the environment protection minister, Ruslan Strilets, stepped down too.
Ukraine’s parliament, the Rada, approved the changes on Wednesday, clapping Maliuska and other outgoing ministers. Some of those resigning are expected to get new posts in government. Kamyshin was reappointed on Wednesday as a strategic adviser.
Speaking earlier, David Arakhamia, the head of the Servant of the People party’s parliamentary faction, the largest in the Rada, said a “major government reset” was under way. “More than 50% of the cabinet of ministers’ staff will be changed,” he said, adding that there would be a “day of appointments” after “a day of dismissals” on Wednesday.
Orysia Lutsevych, the head of the Ukraine forum at the thinktank Chatham House, said Kuleba’s departure had been expected. He would almost certainly get another top post, probably as a senior ambassador somewhere abroad, she predicted.
Lutsevych said some other personnel changes were less explicable. “It’s a pattern whenever Zelenskiy dismisses ministers. He is very mysterious and brief,” she said. “There is a problem with strategic communications. It creates speculation about why this happens.
“Normally in Ukraine there are suspicions about power, control, cashflows and [Andriy] Yermak [Zelenskiy’s influential chief of staff]. What is disconcerting is when some effective leaders, people with good reputations, are being dismissed.”
Last week western financial institutions voiced their concern after the head of Ukraine’s energy company, Ukrenergo, was fired. Volodymyr Kudrytskyi was sacked for allegedly failing to protect the country’s power grid from Russian attacks.
