Most of these issues are practically not discussed with parliamentarians
Almost two weeks ago, politics partially returned to Ukraine. Autumn began with an expected event - personnel changes in the Cabinet of Ministers. Despite the fact that the situation with dismissals and appointments changed almost every hour, everything happened quite quickly. The only constant attribute was that all personnel changes were decided in the Office of the President (OP). Meanwhile, the parliament, including the presidential faction “Servant of the People” (SN), was once again left without attention.
“We successfully moved the beds,” one of the SN deputies sneered in a conversation with Telegraph. He, like some of his faction colleagues, is already philosophical about the fact that most of these issues are practically not discussed with them. For example, the “servants” saw potential ministers only on the eve of the vote. They were personally introduced by the President and Prime Minister.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the faction assures that the list of appointments has been circulating among the deputies for a long time and this should not have been a special surprise for the parliamentarians. At the same time, a source in the faction admits that “some details have been completed in recent days.” Read more about Bankova’s current relationship with parliament and the mood under the dome of the Verkhovna Rada
They know how flaky
Despite the lack of parliamentary authority, it was important for the OP to avoid an uncontrolled rebellion and conduct conversations within the faction. According to Telegraph, the role of communicators was performed by the head of the SN faction, David Arakhamia, and the vice-speaker of the Rada, Alexander Kornienko.
As one of the deputies says, Arakhamia and Kornienko are well aware of the weaknesses of their colleagues, so they quickly found a common language in matters of supporting one or another candidate for minister: “For 5 years, they studied the deputies like crazy: who is more “conceptual”, who is more philosophical character, some people want to go abroad to some meetings, and others want to visit their children. For some, it’s enough to just be listened to.”
“There was a certain misunderstanding among deputies from the agrarian committee. They hoped that Taras Vysotsky would be appointed minister (he headed the department in acting status - Ed.). But because of his criminal case, the OP replayed the situation,” notes the Telegraph’s interlocutor. “The candidacy of Vitaly Koval (ex-head of the State Property Fund. - Ed.) was unexpected for everyone.” Kornienko and Arakhamia explained to the deputies that they did not have a committee that could cause trouble. Therefore, it is better for them to calmly support the new minister,” the publication’s source emphasized.
Many representatives of the faction still do not understand why Koval was sent to the Ministry of Agriculture, because this was not his direction at all. “I never heard a word from him about corn. Maybe something has changed. Or maybe he felt that the State Property Fund “smells too hot” and you can’t do anything or earn money there,” the source in SN shared with Telegraph.
Koval is associated with Timur Mindich, co-owner of Kvartal 95. The new minister is also called the creature of the head of the OP Andrei Ermak.
Personal motives
It was necessary to conduct separate negotiations with some deputies Kornienko and Arakhamia about the dismissal of Irina Vereshchuk. In the Cabinet of Ministers, she dealt with issues of reintegration of temporary occupied territories. A group of 15-20 parliamentarians, most of whom were majoritarians from the occupied territories, was also called the “Vereshchuk fan club.” It was through her that they resolved certain issues regarding IDPs.
“She couldn’t be kicked out right away. Therefore, we decided to send him to the OP. They conveyed to people that this would be better not only for her, but for everyone. They explained that it would be better to merge this ministry with the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure,” explains a deputy familiar with the situation.
At the same time, he added: “From the outside it looked a little strange that we were liquidating the Ministry of Reintegration during the war. It’s a psychologically difficult story: if there is no reintegration, it means we have abandoned these territories and are not fighting for them. These thoughts are difficult to overcome.”
Another controversial candidate was the former deputy head of the OP Alexey Kuleba, who became Deputy Prime Minister for the Reconstruction of Ukraine - Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine. It is he who is also given the Ministry of Reintegration, which was headed by Vereshchuk. Majoritarians from the Kyiv region, a deputy from the group of businessman Ilya Pavlyuk, and personally the chairman of the Servant of the People party, Elena Shulyak, spoke out against him.
If the former did not work well with Kuleba even during his management of the Kyiv region, then Shulyak has a personal motive - she has friendly relations with Alexander Kubrakov. As you know, he previously headed the Ministry of Renovation.
After Kuleba’s appointment, Shulyak even wrote a message on Facebook praising Kubrakov. Bankova did not appreciate this step and believe that the head of the party went against the president. Zelensky has recently had a tense relationship with Kubrakov, which was the reason for his dismissal. Now the OP is thinking about replacing Shulyak as head of the SN party. But another problem arises - there are no people willing to lead the political force.
Cabinet of Ministers for Parliament
While the leadership of the faction was still able to gather votes for the appointment of ministers, the situation was more complicated with the resignation of Prime Minister Denis Shmygal. Let us note that rumors about a change in the head of government steadily appear every few months, but this did not prevent the inexpressive Shmygal from becoming the record holder for the longest term of prime minister - he has headed the Cabinet of Ministers for more than 4.5 years. However, several months ago there were serious rumors that Zelensky intended to replace the prime minister with Yulia Sviridenko, First Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Economy. Then the same Arakhamia was sent to collect votes in parliament.
“David (Arakhamia - Ed.) argued that there are no votes to appoint someone new. Especially if this new one is the same as the old one. When they began to seriously discuss the option of replacing Sviridenko, the deputies openly said that this would be “a big deal.” Some directly answered that they would not even come to vote. We analyzed it and realized that this is a bad story. If at the decisive moment there really weren’t enough votes, then we would look very bad. And the president too. Don’t forget that in order to release Shmygal under martial law, it is almost necessary to change the law,” a people’s deputy involved in this story tells Telegraph.
Finally, Shmygal was confirmed that he was continuing to work and was offered to update the composition of his government team. He had nothing to do with the dismissal of Vereshchuk and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
“Kuleba has not worked for the last two months. He wanted to go as ambassador to Britain, but Zaluzhny was sent there. Dima took this as an unfriendly step. The last straw was his incomprehensible statements in Poland. In the end, he was offered to create and head a multi-embassy in Brussels, but he refused,” explains Telegraph’s source in the OP.
Immediately after the appointments, the prime minister convened the partially updated Cabinet of Ministers and called on everyone to cooperate with parliament. And this despite the fact that Ukrainian politicians constantly complain that the Verkhovna Rada has lost its subjectivity. Shmygal understands that without deputies it will not be possible to pass the laws that partners require to provide financial assistance.
“90% of parliamentary loyalty to the government will depend on communication between ministers and deputies. Despite the fact that our “servants” often come to the government with frankly trashy ideas,” admits one of the interlocutors
Parliamentary sentiments
After the ban on the Moscow church and personnel changes in the SN, all passions calmed down. Now people's deputies are predicting quiet work. So far there are really no controversial bills on the agenda. “There will be voices. If necessary, our partners from other factions will help (we are talking, in particular, about the parliamentary groups “Trust” and “For the Future.” - Ed.),” the SN leadership tells Telegraph.
Questions may arise regarding the public procurement bill, which is required by international partners. There we will have to look for a middle ground in negotiations with allies.
Also, the Verkhovna Rada is already discussing future votes that relate to the end of the war. No one yet understands whether there will be negotiations with Russia, which will ultimately be agreed upon at the Peace Summit. But what exactly are the deputies convinced of: any results of the negotiations, the format for ending the war, will need to be voted on in parliament.
“It’s hard to imagine how this will all happen,” notes the SN deputy. “It is not yet clear when such a vote might take place.” Now everyone is waiting for November and the presidential elections in the United States,” sums up the publication’s interlocutor.
