The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has received a letter of resignation from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, the institution announced in a Telegram message. The resignation will be considered in one of the following plenary sessions.
His resignation was announced on Tuesday evening by the daily Ukrainska Pravda. The publication said that it has not yet been decided who will be appointed in his place, but the most likely replacement is the first deputy minister of foreign affairs, Andrii Sîbiga.
Ukrainskaia Pravda sources say that other resignations are being prepared in the government, but Prime Minister Denîs Şmihal will remain in office. On Tuesday, the heads of three ministries, as well as the deputy prime minister, Olha Stefanişina, submitted their resignations to the parliament.
The reasons for the resignations were not specified. The news came after months of reports regarding the possible replacement of several Ukrainian ministers.
David Arahamia, the parliamentary leader of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s Servant of the People party, said on Tuesday that the reshuffle would affect more than half of the government’s staff.
“Tomorrow (no Wednesday) is the day of layoffs and the day after tomorrow (no Thursday) is the day of appointments,” he added.
Zelensky said in March that Ukrainians can expect more government reshuffles.
Kuleba, born in 1981, is the youngest foreign minister in the history of Ukraine, a position he has held since 2020, and one of the main interlocutors of the West since the outbreak of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression in February 2022.
Previously, Kuleba held the position of Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration and Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the Council of Europe between 2016 and 2019.
Kuleba has worked in Ukraine’s diplomatic service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2003. He resigned from public service in 2013, citing his disagreement with the directions of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, and chaired a foundation for cultural diplomacy, participating in the Euromaidan protests from 2013- 2014.
At the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014, when Crimea was annexed, Kuleba decided to return to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a roving ambassador to launch strategic communication. He introduced the concepts of digital diplomacy, strategic communication, cultural diplomacy and public diplomacy in the activity of the ministry.