Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba resigns: reasons, who will take his place, Russia’s reaction

The head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Dmytro Kuleba, has resigned. This was announced by the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk.

The application from Kuleba was received by the Rada the day before and will be considered at one of the next plenary sessions, Stefanchuk said.

Kuleba’s place may be taken by someone from the office of the President of Ukraine

Someone from the president’s office may be appointed to the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. This is about stated Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleksiy Goncharenko (included in the list of terrorists and extremists in the Russian Federation).

Thus, according to him, Kuleba could be replaced by the First Deputy Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andriy Sybiha or the current Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Mykola Tochytsky.

Deputy Yaroslav Zheleznyak also spoke about the possible replacement of Kuleba by “someone from the presidential office”.

The Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry have spoken out about the consequences of Kuleba’s departure

Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov previously stated that Dmitry Kuleba’s resignation would not in any way affect the prospects for negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.

“No, it will not affect anything. It has nothing to do with the prospects of the negotiation process,” Peskov said on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).

The Russian Foreign Ministry also commented on Kuleba’s resignation. The official representative of the department, Maria Zakharova, spoke about the resignation in one phrase: “Autumn, leaf fall, branches are exposed.”

Earlier, several Ukrainian ministers resigned.

On September 3, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine received resignation statements from the Minister of Justice Denis Maliuska, the Minister for Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin, the Minister for Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strelets, and the Chairman of the State Property Fund Vitaliy Koval.

It was also reported that the deputy head of the office of the President of Ukraine, Rostislav Shurma, and two deputy prime ministers, Olga Stefanishyna and Iryna Vereshchuk, had resigned.

Volodymyr Zelensky explained the personnel changes in the upcoming extremely important autumn for Ukraine. He noted that the authorities need to strengthen some areas of the government, including in matters of domestic and foreign policy.