President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at a meeting with the Servant of the People faction, laid out the rationale for personnel decisions regarding the new government, including the dismissal of Defence Minister Mykhaylo Fedorov, who will not serve as a minister in the new Cabinet.
Sources in the faction told LB.ua this after the meeting, which lasted more than an hour. Fedorov himself was not present.
“The full list of candidates was presented by Koretskyy. We’ll vote tomorrow. And on Friday there won’t be a question hour for the government, because we’ll only be appointing the government. So the Rada will convene again in August,” one participant in the meeting said.
“If you want it in one word, the meeting was constructive and substantive. If a bit more broadly—I don’t like fountains of friendliness where I’m not looking for them, excuse me,” one of the LB.ua interlocutors described the atmosphere.
According to him, the president tried in every way to smooth over the fact of Fedorov’s dismissal.
“It was emphasised that we’re not parting ways, that he’s still on the team, a different area, and so on. The reasons for the dismissal were argued as convincingly as possible. A permanent conflict with the military, in short,” the source noted.
Another MP from Servant of the People said that Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented the personnel decisions as not subject to discussion.
“The president said how it needs to be done, because the country is at war and your duty is to support my decision. Klymenko to the Ministry of Defence. Vyhivskyy to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Those are the main ones,” he said.
At the same time, another LB.ua source in the faction criticised the decision on Fedorov: “Fedorov won’t be a minister. That’s bad. Including for the image of the new government.”
Another deputy added that “law enforcement and Hetmantsev went after Fedorov,” and that he also had “not very good relations with Syrskyy. And the President trusts the latter.”
Context
Mykhailo Fedorov headed the Ministry of Defence for seven months—since January. Sources in the newsroom reported as early as Sunday that there might be no place for him in the new government, immediately after the president’s sudden announcement of the need to renew the Cabinet.