Lawmakers from the Servant of the People faction have gathered for a meeting with the nominee for prime minister, Naftogaz of Ukraine CEO Serhiy Koretskyy. The faction will meet again in the evening—this time with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy—where MPs will be presented with the new composition of the Cabinet of Ministers.
Sources in the faction told LB.ua.
“Koretskyy is a communicative and experienced technocrat; overall the impression is positive,” one interlocutor said.
According to another MP, many lawmakers are attending the meeting: “Yaroslav Zheleznyak said there were 50 MPs. But in fact there are more. There are almost no free seats.”
At the same time, the MP is skeptical about the future government.
“Last time I said this government would last less than a year. My forecast for the new government is even less. There is a political law: each new government is weaker than the previous one. The outlook is that the economic situation is not improving. This is a war of attrition. Serious decisions must be made and real reforms carried out. I don’t see the political will for that. People think in terms of the next elections, not in terms of the economy’s and the country’s survival,” he commented.
He added that there is unlikely to be a serious program or a new strategy:
“There is the traditional blah blah blah and confusion. And no one believes in official ‘strategies’ anymore. Mykhaylo Fedorov tried to do something there, but apparently stepped on someone’s interests, and amid the noise of the government reset they may get rid of him. I spoke with colleagues. Somehow I don’t see enthusiasm about the future prime minister either,” he said.
Another interlocutor said the faction will convene for another meeting in the evening.
“The nominees for the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be announced today at that meeting and voted on tomorrow, along with the Cabinet and the prime minister,” he said.
“The more interesting meeting will be the faction session with the President at 18:30. That’s where we’ll hear the new composition of the Cabinet of Ministers,” another MP added.
Government reshuffle
Sources at LB reported as early as Sunday—when the president announced plans to reshuffle the government—that Serhiy Koretskyy was the most likely candidate for prime minister.
Yesterday, the Verkhovna Rada dismissed Yuliya Svyrydenko’s cabinet. It fell three days short of completing a full year in office.
Until a new government is appointed, the Cabinet will be led in an acting capacity by First Deputy Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, and all ministers will also serve in an acting capacity. The president must submit nominations for the minister of defence and the minister of foreign affairs. The heads of the remaining ministries will be proposed by the new prime minister.
Serhiy Koretskyy
He earned his higher education at Lutsk State Technical University: in 2001 in mechanical engineering, and in 2005 in business management. In 2019, he completed an Executive MBA program at the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School.
For more than 20 years, Koretskyy was associated with the Continium Group of Companies. Starting in 1997, he rose from an employee in the analytics department to CEO. In 2002, he headed the joint venture West Oil Group, and from 2007 he ran the group’s management company.
From 2002 to 2006, he served on a voluntary basis as an aide to MP Ihor Yeremeyev of the 4th convocation of the Verkhovna Rada (For a United Ukraine).
In 2006, he unsuccessfully ran for the Verkhovna Rada of the 5th convocation from a non-electable part of the list of the Lytvyn People’s Bloc (No. 214). That same year, he unsuccessfully ran for the Volyn Regional Council of the 5th convocation from the Lytvyn People’s Bloc.
In 2007–2012, he served on a voluntary basis as an aide to Kateryna Vashchuk, an MP of the 6th convocation of the Verkhovna Rada elected from the Lytvyn People’s Bloc.
In 2012–2014, he served on a voluntary basis as an aide to MP Ihor Yeremeyev, a self-nominated member of the Verkhovna Rada of the 7th convocation.
From 2013, he managed the WOG gas station chain, introducing new business models, including launching coffee shops outside filling stations.
In 2018, he finished his work at Continium and focused on his own projects. In 2019, he founded Idealist Coffee Co., a coffee brand with a full production cycle that also operates a chain of coffee shops. As of 2024, 10 such locations were operating in Kyiv, and since 2022 Idealist products have been supplied on Ukrzaliznytsya trains. He exited the beneficiaries of the coffee business at the end of 2021.
In 2019–2022, he was co-founder and chairman of the board of the energy trading company Centurion Group SA in Switzerland.
On 9 November 2022, Serhiy Koretskyy was appointed director of Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta after the companies were transferred to the management of the Ministry of Defence.
On 28 April 2025, the supervisory board of Naftogaz of Ukraine decided to appoint Serhiy Koretskyy as CEO.