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Ukraine’s parliament accepted the resignation on Tuesday of Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, who stepped down after just a year in office at the request of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a reshuffle for which he has offered little explanation.
The motion to accept the 40-year-old economist’s resignation passed in parliament, although some lawmakers expressed unease about such an abrupt change.
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“Every day this year demanded difficult decisions and decisive action. I am deeply grateful for the trust and support I received. You also know that I have always believed results matter most,” Svyrydenko said in her farewell speech.
Svyrydenko was put in charge of the cabinet a year ago, several months after a major corruption case involving senior officials came to public attention. Since then, her critics have accused her of failing to take sufficiently decisive action to clean house.
Zelenskyy has said Ukraine is changing its political strategy and new people are needed, but has otherwise given little explanation for again changing his cabinet.
Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a lawmaker from the opposition Holos party, mocked the outgoing government’s record: “We were promised results every day. The government has kept that promise: presentations every day, press conferences every day, and every day we had a new suspect in a corruption case.”
Svyrydenko’s dismissal triggers the resignation of the entire government. Lawmakers identified Serhiy Koretskyi, the head of state oil and gas firm Naftogaz, as a likely successor.
Other possibilities include a return for Svyrydenko’s predecessor Denys Shmyhal, now serving as energy minister, or giving the job to Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
Ukraine has been trying to gain the upper hand in recent months in the more than four-year-old war, pummeling Russian energy facilities and logistics with long-range attacks.
The prime minister mostly deals with domestic policy, keeping the wartime economy afloat and repairing the damage from Russia’s relentless attacks on Ukraine’s civil infrastructure.
Svyrydenko said preparing for winter would be the main challenge for the new government, as Russia is expected to double down on attacking Ukraine’s electric grid and gas system.
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