Ukraine appoints new prime minister in biggest wartime overhaul

KYIV - Ukraine’s Parliament appointed the country’s first new prime minister in five years on July 17, part of a major Cabinet overhaul aimed at revitalising wartime management as prospects for peace with Russia grow dim.

Ms Yulia Svyrydenko, 39, has been tasked by President Volodymyr Zelensky with boosting domestic weapons production and reviving Ukraine’s loan-dependent economy.

In a speech to Parliament, Mr Zelensky said he expected his new government to increase the share of domestic weapons on Ukraine’s battlefield to 50 per cent from 40 per cent within six months.

He also singled out deregulation and expanding economic cooperation with allies as other key aims of the biggest government reshuffle

since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

Ms Svyrydenko, an experienced technocrat who had served as first deputy prime minister since 2021, pledged to move “swiftly and decisively”.

“War leaves no room for delay,” she wrote on social media platform X.

“Our priorities for the first six months are clear: reliable supply for the army, expansion of domestic weapons production and boosting the technological strength of our defence forces.”

Ms Svyrydenko is also well known to the Trump administration, having negotiated a deal giving the US preferential access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth. It was considered crucial to bolstering relations between Kyiv and Washington.

Addressing lawmakers on July 16, Mr Zelensky said further deals with the US would be forthcoming, but did not offer any specific details.

Parliament is also expected to appoint the outgoing Prime Minister, Mr Denys Shmyhal, as defence minister after his nomination by Mr Zelensky earlier this week.

Ms Svyrydenko takes over the government as Russian forces press a grinding offensive across the sprawling, more-than-1,000km front line and intensify air strikes on Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine is betting on a budding defence industry, fuelled in part by foreign investment, to fend off Russia’s bigger and better-armed war machine.

With state revenues going to defence, Kyiv will also need to find money to finance its ballooning budget deficit as foreign aid diminishes. Officials have said they could face a shortfall of about US$19 billion in 2026.

Ms Svyrydenko said her government would launch a full audit of public finances to achieve “real savings”, as well as accelerate large-scale privatisations and help entrepreneurs.

She received 262 votes, a comfortable majority in the 450-seat Parliament, according to several lawmakers reporting from inside the chamber. Ukraine’s Parliament does not broadcast its sessions in wartime.

The ministries of the economy, justice, energy and European integration will also receive new leaders. However, few are political outsiders.

Some opposition lawmakers voiced scepticism about the new government’s ability to remain independent of Mr Zelensky’s administration, which wields significant wartime powers under Ukraine’s Constitution.

“They will be told by the president’s office what they should really do,” wrote Mr Yaroslav Zheleznyak of the Holos party. REUTERS