KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, one of Ukraine’s most recognizable faces on the international stage, submitted his resignation Wednesday ahead of an expected major government reshuffle. Russian strikes, meanwhile, killed seven people in a western Ukraine city, a day after one of the deadliest missile attacks since the war began.
Kuleba, 43, didn’t give a reason for stepping down. His resignation will be discussed by lawmakers at their next session, parliamentary Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk said on his Facebook page. Four other Cabinet ministers tendered their resignations late Tuesday, making the Cabinet reshuffle likely the biggest since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy indicated last week that a reshuffle was imminent, with the war poised to enter a critical stage and as its 1,000-day mark looms in November.
He said Wednesday that Ukraine needs “new energy, and that includes in diplomacy.” He said during a Kyiv news conference with visiting Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris that he couldn’t announce any replacements yet because he didn’t know whether the candidates would accept his invitation to join the government.
Zelensky needs to keep up Ukraine’s morale amid the grinding war of attrition with its bigger neighbor and steel the country’s resolve for what will be another hard winter. Russia has been smashing Ukraine’s power grid, knocking out some 70% of generation capacity and rupturing heat and water supplies. And Wednesday’s deadly attack on Lviv — a city near the border with NATO member Poland and far from the front lines — underscored how all of Ukraine is at the mercy of Moscow’s long-range capabilities.
The Ukrainian army’s risky incursion almost a month ago into Russia’s Kursk border region raised Ukrainian sprits and countered months of grim news from the front line in eastern Ukraine. The incursion’s ultimate goals are unclear, though Zelenskyy says Ukraine wants to create a buffer zone there that would prevent cross-border Russian attacks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin remains bent on pushing his army deeper into eastern Ukraine, meanwhile. Russia’s onslaught in Donetsk, where Ukraine is short of troops and air defenses, and long-range missile strikes that repeatedly hit civilian areas of Ukraine signal that Putin will remain uncompromising and unrelenting in his efforts to crush Ukrainian resistance.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said late Tuesday that Putin believes Russia “can slowly and indefinitely subsume Ukraine through grinding advances and that Russia can achieve its goals through a war of attrition against Ukrainian forces and by outlasting Western support” for Kyiv.
Zelensky is also keeping in mind the U.S. presidential election in November, which could bring a shift in key U.S. military support for his country.
During the war Kuleba has been second only to Zelenskyy in carrying Ukraine’s message and needs to an international audience, whether through social media posts or meetings with foreign dignitaries. In July, Kuleba became the highest-ranking Ukrainian official to visit China since Russia’s invasion. He has been foreign minister since March 2020.
Kuleba’s successor is not yet known but is expected to be announced on Thursday. Several Ukrainian media outlets, citing unnamed sources, said Kuleba’s deputy, Andrii Sybiha, would become the country’s chief diplomat.
The new foreign minister will likely accompany Zelenskyy to the U.N. General Assembly in New York next week, which is an opportunity to lobby global leaders for their support.
More than half the current Cabinet will undergo changes, said Davyd Arakhamiia, a leader of Zelenskyy’s party in the Ukrainian parliament. Ministers will be resigning on Wednesday and new appointments will be made Thursday, he said.
Zelenskyy’s five-year mandate expired in May. He remains in power under the provisions of martial law.
Meantime, the nighttime strike on Lviv injured 52 people as well as killing seven, Ukraine’s Rescue Service said. The strike was carried out with a Kinzhal missile and drones and targeted defense industry enterprises, Russian news agency Tass said, citing the Russian Defense Ministry.
