Parliament has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk at an emergency session on March 4.
It comes as a part of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s effort to reshuffle the government and speed up reforms.
“We did a lot. But I understand that it might not be enough,” Honcharuk told lawmakers from the parliamentary tribune shortly before 353 lawmakers voted to approve his exit.
Honcharuk’s resignation means that the entire Cabinet was fired, too. The new prime minister and Cabinet are expected to be appointed by the end of the day on March 4. The most likely replacement of Honcharuk is Denys Shmygal, who served as Honcharuk’s deputy since early February.
Honcharuk, 35, was voted into office on Aug. 29. He became the youngest prime minister in Ukraine’s history. After his resignation, he also became the prime minister with the shortest tenure in office.
Under Honcharuk, the government lowered interest rates for small business, placed euro-bonds with record-low interest rates, restarted privatization and initiated the long-anticipated land reform, which would allow farmland to be bought and sold. The land bill is yet to be adopted by parliament. Lawmakers drew up over 4,000 amendments to a law on lifting the long-standing land moratorium, effectively blocking the parliament since early February.
Honcharuk has been in the hot seat since mid-January, when tapes of him and other Cabinet members discussing the president in unflattering terms were leaked online. In response, on Jan. 17, he filed a letter of resignation to Zelensky, bypassing the parliament and sparking outrage among lawmakers.
Zelensky didn’t support his resignation back in January, but, in recent months, the situation has changed. Zelensky publicly said he wasn’t satisfied with Honcharuk’s performance, and, in mid-February, the president held talks with Honcharuk’s potential replacements, including veteran politician Sergiy Tigipko. Meanwhile, as little as 6% of Ukrainians fully supported his government, according to recent polls.
On Feb. 28, Ukrainian media outlets reported that Honcharuk and Zelensky had allegedly clashed over plans to replace the management of Centrenergo, a state-owned power company. The company was run by an individual with ties to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, the primary supplier of coal for the power company and Zelensky’s former business partner.
To many observers, the fight over Centrenergo’s management was a tug-of-war between Kolomoisky and Honcharuk, who wanted to minimize the oligarch’s influence. However, on Feb. 28, the Kyiv Administrative Court delivered Kolomoisky a major victory: It ruled that the government cannot change the leadership of Centrenergo.
Despite these reports, on which none of the parties commented, Honcharuk complimented Zelensky on his way out.
“I’m very optimistic about our future. We have a very good president,” Honcharuk said in the parliament. “In the time we worked together, I never had one order from him that would go against the law.”
