Surprise exit: Resignations from Ukrainian government include nation's top diplomat

A spate of resignations from Ukraine’s government came with one major surprise: the departure of Dmytro Kuleba, the career diplomat who courted Western support for his country’s defense as its tireless foreign minister.

Ahead of a major overhaul of the government, six Cabinet ministers have resigned, sending handwritten notes to parliament that offered little explanation for their decisions. Kuleba was the last to leave Wednesday, though his exit has not been formally sanctioned by parliament.

The 43-year-old Kuleba became Ukraine’s most recognizable representative abroad – second only to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy – and built close relationships with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and European leaders.

Both before and after the full-scale Russian invasion of early 2022, he argued on multiple trips abroad that the outcome of the conflict was a test of Western resolve to push back autocracy.

“I believe that Kuleba is a good communicator, and it’s bad to lose him as minister, but we do not know what his next position will be,” Olexiy Haran, a professor of political science at Kyiv Mohyla University, told The Associated Press.

Haran said Kuleba’s departure was unlikely to bring any change to Ukrainian foreign policy, given the list of his possible successors.

The son of a diplomat, Kuleba said his attendance as a teenager at an international school in Vienna was a pivotal experience that forged his conviction that Ukraine should be rooted in the West and not in a post-Soviet Russian orbit.

He joined the foreign ministry in 2003 and later worked as a Ukrainian representative with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. He became known for his analytical delivery and closer to home for his love of cooking and cooking metaphors.

After the invasion, Kuleba represented his country in a business suit, in contrast to the military attire preferred by Zelenskyy and many officials surrounding him.

Kuleba could have fallen out of alignment with powerful officials in Zelenskyy’s office who have direct input in defense and foreign affairs. Haran said Zelenskyy may be keen to use the reshuffle to turn the page and shore up public support as the war with Russia enters a new, uncertain stage.

Ukraine is fighting to defend the incursion into Russia that it launched nearly a month ago and struggling to hold back a punishing advance of enemy troops in the east — all while bracing for the U.S. presidential election in November that could cast doubt over international military assistance.

Publicly, Ukrainian officials have remained tight-lipped about the reshuffle.

At a meeting Wednesday with the visiting Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris, Zelenskyy said his government needed “new energy” in various areas, including diplomacy.

Outwardly, Kuleba gave little indication that anything had changed. He attended scheduled meetings Wednesday and posted a strongly worded condemnation online of Russian airstrikes that killed civilians in Lviv, in western Ukraine.

“Russia understands only one language: the language of strength,” Kuleba wrote at the end of the post. “We must all take decisive action, show leadership, and be brave in order to put a fair end to Russian war and terror.”

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Dmytro Zhyhinas in Kyiv contributed to this report.