Zelenskyy announces leadership shuffle as war turns in Ukraine’s favor
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 8 hours ago
- 3 min read
By ANDREW E. KRAMER
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Sunday a shake-up of his top leadership, including the dismissal of the prime minister, in a personnel overhaul that comes as momentum in the war has shifted in Ukraine’s favor.
Zelenskyy said the personnel changes were needed to focus the government’s work on high-priority foreign and domestic policies, including relations with the United States, membership talks with the European Union, securing sufficient supplies of weaponry for the army, and supporting cities and towns near the front line.
“Ukraine is changing its political strategy,” Zelenskyy said in a statement about the overhaul. He said he would designate an official to oversee each priority policy.
Zelenskyy said that Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, a 40-year-old former minister of economy who had led a team of mostly young politicians in Zelenskyy’s government, would step down as prime minister.
“The Cabinet of Ministers needs to be renewed,” Zelenskyy said.
In the statement, he did not mention any other personnel changes. Earlier, Zelenskyy had said he planned changes in the diplomatic service in order to focus diplomacy on securing military supplies from allies. In the statement, he said he would also replace leaders of law enforcement agencies.
Political analysts will be watching two popular generals seen as potential rivals for the presidency in postwar elections, both of whom now work in Zelenskyy’s administration.
Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, a former director of military intelligence, is currently chief of staff, and Gen. Valery Zaluzhny is ambassador to Britain. Whether Zelenskyy keeps them inside the administration, and in which capacity, will partly define Ukraine’s postwar political lineup.
Zelenskyy said he would work with parliament, which must approve ministerial changes, on the overhaul. Zelenskyy’s political party, Servant of the People, holds a majority in parliament but has sometimes struggled to pass legislation or win confirmations, as lawmakers don’t always vote along party lines.
Zelenskyy last reshuffled the Cabinet in July 2025, after a year and a half of gradual losses along the front line and as Ukraine suffered electrical blackouts as Russia hammered the country’s power grid.
He has replaced individual ministers in scandals over mismanagement and corruption, including a minister of national unity and minister of energy who were implicated by anti-corruption investigators in a kickback scheme.
The current political reshuffle comes after a shift in the tide in the war. Ukraine’s strategy of fighting with drones both on the front line and to hit targets deep in Russia is yielding results.
The Russian army is enduring huge casualties from exploding drones. U.S. and Ukrainian officials estimate about 30,000 of its soldiers a month are killed or injured just to maintain a mostly static front line. Russia is making slow gains in the eastern Donbas region but some months has a net loss of territory as Ukraine advances elsewhere.
Ukraine is also mass producing long-range exploding drones that have incapacitated about a quarter of Russia’s oil refining capacity. Ukraine claimed to have struck more than 90 ships in the Sea of Azov in the past week, in what would be a major security lapse for Russia in the sea.