Ex-Prime Minister Goncharuk returns to big politics: he will soon be given a new position

Alexey Goncharuk is the youngest prime minister in the history of Ukraine. During his short tenure, he managed to be remembered for a loud scandal, which the domestic media dubbed “Goncharuk-gate.” Then audio recordings of the meeting were leaked online, where the young prime minister stated that Vladimir Zelensky has a “primitive understanding of the economy.”

The scandal led to Goncharuk's resignation. And it seemed that this would be the end of his political career. However, three years later, Alexey Goncharuk seems to be returning to the field of public administration.

At the end of December 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the new composition of the Supervisory Board of the state concern Ukroboronprom. To the surprise of many, the former head of the Ukrainian government, Alexei Goncharchuk, also entered there. Sources claim that this appointment is not accidental.

In the near future, the 31-year-old general director of Ukroboronprom, German Smetanin, who has been heading the concert for just over six months, will be fired. Our sources do not name the reasons for the resignation, but they definitely say that Alexey Goncharuk should take the place of the new general director.

The main milestones of Goncharuk’s career and what he is remembered for as prime minister.

Lawyer with a non-state diploma

Goncharuk has three higher educations - MAUP with a degree in Law, the National Academy of Public Administration under the President of Ukraine with a degree in Public Administration and the Kiev-Mohyla Business School, and also the non-governmental Aspen Institute Kyiv.

Goncharuk himself admitted that he had a “non-state” law degree, which is why he became the object of ridicule on the Internet at one time.

For some time he worked as a lawyer in various companies, held senior positions, and was also involved in social activities. For example, he was the head of a certain public organization, the Association for Assistance to Injured Investors, which allegedly helped citizens who were deceived by dishonest developers.

The attempt to become a people's deputy was unsuccessful

Alexey Goncharuk tried to take his first steps in politics in 2014 after the Revolution of Dignity. Then, in the elections to the Verkhovna Rada, he ran from the “Power of People” party, number one on the list. However, Goncharuk’s attempts to become a people’s deputy were unsuccessful - the party gained 0.1%.

A year later, in 2015, Goncharuk headed the Effective Regulation Office (BRDO), which did in-depth analysis of economic and other processes in the state, thus helping to implement reforms in Ukraine and clear domestic legislation of Soviet norms. And in principle, this work of BRDO, led by Goncharuk, was assessed very highly, because the Office really proposed a number of effective initiatives that found support in the parliament hall and were implemented.

By the way, it was from this organization that many current politicians emerged, for example, the current Deputy Prime Minister for the Restoration of Ukraine - Minister of Development of Communities, Territories and Infrastructure, Alexander Kubrakov, or the head of the Servant of the People party, Elena Shulyak.

Also, during the presidency of Petro Poroshenko, Alexey Goncharuk managed to be a freelance adviser to the then Minister of Economic Development and Trade Stepan Kubiv.

Golden time of Goncharuk

Alexey Goncharuk’s attempts to get into politics were crowned with success after Vladimir Zelensky’s victory in the presidential elections in Ukraine in the spring of 2019. Already at the end of May of the same year, Goncharuk was appointed deputy head of the Office of President Andriy Bogdan. In the OP, Alexey Goncharuk was responsible for economic development and continuation of reforms in the country. In the same 2019, he also became a member of the National Reform Council and a member of the National Investment Council, and in the summer of 2019 he was appointed a member of the National Anti-Corruption Policy Council.

The young politician began his rapid promotion in August of the same 2019, when he became Prime Minister of Ukraine. At the time of his election he was only 35 years old.

The new head of government immediately began to build the image of a very open and progressive official. He could lead a Cabinet meeting in a shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, which no prime minister had ever done before. Goncharuk was also remembered for riding around the Cabinet of Ministers on a scooter. He himself stated that the corridors in the government building are so long that they can only be moved using this type of transport.

The government led by Goncharuk also had to take the lead in some unpopular decisions. For example, then the Cabinet of Ministers agreed on the dismissal of Vitaliy Klitschko from the post of head of the Kyiv City State Administration. True, it was not possible to actually implement this either then or now. Under the premiership of Alexei Goncharuk, the land market was also launched. However, the politician simply did not have time to implement his significant plans as head of government. Goncharuk went down in the history of Ukraine not only as the youngest prime minister, but also as the head of government who served the shortest time in office - only six months. Already in March 2020, the Verkhovna Rada fired Goncharuk.

"Goncharuk-gate"

In fact, the reason for the resignation was audio recordings that recorded a conversation between a group of people with voices similar to those of Goncharuk himself, the then Minister of Finance Oksana Markarova (now the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States), Deputy Head of the National Bank Ekaterina Rozhkova and Minister of Economy Timofey Milovanov.

During this conversation, Goncharuk seems to call himself “a complete ignoramus in economics,” and also states that President Vladimir Zelensky has a “primitive understanding of economic processes.” Also, during the conversation, Goncharuk seemed to say that the president needs to explain why the hryvnia has strengthened. They say that before the elections in 2019, the hryvnia was strongly shaken, and after Zelensky became president, the hryvnia began to strengthen and Ukrainians saw that there was nothing to be afraid of, because there was a strong president. Goncharuk added that at that time the president did not have this in his head and he needed to be shown everything so that everything looked realistic.

“Until the president has an answer to this question in his head, he will have an empty space there...” Goncharuk said then.

It was after this scandal that Goncharuk wrote a statement, but Vladimir Zelensky did not accept it, saying that he was giving Goncharuk’s government another chance, but subsequently the parliament accepted his resignation.

Since the spring of 2020, when Goncharuk was fired from his post as head of the Cabinet of Ministers, he disappeared from political radars and lived in the United States for some time. He himself stated that he returned to Ukraine even before the start of the full-scale Russian invasion, and already during the big war “he focused on the development and use of Ukrainian drones of various types. In fact, I live in the “world of engineers and the military,” and also implemented a number of other projects that I can talk about after my victory.

Now he heads the supervisory board of the public organization "Aerorazvedka", which, according to Goncharuk, does a lot to develop situational awareness, introduce the principles of network-centric warfare and NATO standards in Ukraine.

Since December last year, he joined the Supervisory Board of Ukroboronprom. Such a position on the eve of the proposed appointment as general director of the entire concert looks very logical. In fact, Goncharuk is given time to get into the swing of things in detail. Since for him the new position is actually the second and, perhaps, the last chance to return to big politics during the presidency of Vladimir Zelensky.

Such a very significant post during the period of martial law offers only two options for the career of any manager: either significant success in building up and strengthening the domestic military-industrial complex, or failure, for which some former leaders of Ukroboronprom were already left without positions. In any case, Alexey Goncharuk, of course, can only wish success in his new position, which is so necessary for Ukraine against the backdrop of internal political struggle in partner states and a decrease in international assistance.