A second wave of personnel changes is expected in Ukrainian politics. The first concerned mainly those positions of power for which the consent of parliament was not required: officials from the Office of the President, the National Security and Defense Council and the security bloc. Now we are talking about the Cabinet of Ministers. Consequently, deputies must give their consent to the dismissal and then appointment of new ministers. And there are some interesting twists here. Why the decision was postponed
The resignation of several ministers was being prepared for this week. As Apostrophe wrote, in particular, the seats under the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Nikolai Solsky and the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for the restoration of Ukraine Alexander Kubrakov swayed. Both ministries have enough “resources”, so they are of interest to different groups on Bankovaya. But the contexts are somewhat different.
But at the last moment, personnel changes were postponed to May. The Rada dismissed only seven members of the Accounts Chamber. At the same time, the Cabinet of Ministers fired Deputy Defense Minister Vitaly Polovenko, who was responsible for logistics support for the army.
At the same time, NABU came with suspicion towards Nikolai Solsky, his deputy Markiyan Dmitrasevich and the former chairman of the State GeoCadastre Alexander Kolotilin. There are a total of 12 suspects in the case. NABU suspects the minister and his entourage of illegally seizing state land worth 291 million hryvnia and attempting to seize land worth another 190 million hryvnia.
According to NABU, participants in the scheme destroyed documents that gave two state-owned enterprises in the Sumy region the right to permanent use of land. Thus, due to the lack of these documents, the regional State Geocadastre drew up an act on the unauthorized occupation of these land plots.
After this, with the help of influential officials of the regional State GeoCadastre, the plots were transferred into the ownership of a pre-selected group of citizens under the guise of exercising their right to free land. One of the conditions for the transfer of land into ownership was the conclusion of an agreement on its lease to a private agricultural holding even before they received ownership status.
Nikolai Solsky himself “guaranteed maximum openness to establish the truth.” His comments were made public by the ministry.
“Circumstances seven years ago relate to a dispute between state-owned enterprises and individuals, in particular the military ATO, for lands granted to the latter for possession in accordance with the law. Disputes are resolved by the courts, including the Supreme Court, and as I know, today a number of decisions state the absence of the right of state-owned enterprises to land, which probably means NABU,” the minister said.
Solsky's case
It is worth noting that Nikolai Solsky has an extremely controversial reputation; in particular, he is a long-time business partner of the former head of the Presidential Office Andrei Bogdan. However, he was appointed minister after Bogdan left power - in emergency mode at the beginning of a full-scale invasion.
It was March 2022. The previous minister, Roman Leshchenko, “disappeared” at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. He subsequently reported that a “severe hereditary illness” forced him to resign. Then the head of the profile committee of the Verkhovna Rada was appointed as the new minister, without particularly paying attention to his business connections.
Now, it was connections with Andrei Bogdan that were mentioned among the reasons for dismissal. However, Apostrophe’s interlocutors in the Verkhovna Rada say that the main complaint against the minister is that he is too independent. And in the corridors of power, they have long been nurturing the idea of merging the Ministry of Agrarian Policy with the Ministry of Economy. Once again, such a united ministry already existed in 2019-2020.
Not everyone in the Verkhovna Rada likes the idea of merging the two departments.
“Everyone who knows the bureaucratic machine knows that when the unification or disunion of any structures begins, this leads to paralysis for about six months,” Taras Zagorodny, managing partner of the National Anti-Crisis Group, explains to Apostrophe. “When the unification of ministries begins, something then it gets lost, then while they approve the staffing structures, then one is fired, one is not fired, decisions are then not made, and so on.”
“Pulling an old skeleton out of the closet” in the form of a case may be connected precisely with the collection of votes for voting, political scientist Vitaly Kulik does not rule out.
“The case is clearly outdated, it’s from 5-6 years ago. As experts are already saying, it’s not worth a damn. They pulled him out, most likely, in order to ensure the necessary vote in the Verkhovna Rada. But not so much for the resignation of Solsky himself, but for the merger of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Economics. I do not rule out that this whole story with this suspicion also fits into this framework in order to complete this unification in the interests of certain groups around Zelensky,” notes political scientist, director of the Center for Research on Civil Society Problems Vitaliy Kulik.
Question to Kubrakov
There are more questions about the work of Deputy Prime Minister for Renovation Alexander Kubrakov. Accordingly, there are votes for his resignation.
From the latest: after the attack on the Trypillya Thermal Power Plant, people's deputies summoned Alexander Kubrakov and the chairman of the State Agency for Reconstruction and Infrastructure Development, Mustafa Nayem, to report to the Verkhovna Rada. However, they never came.
“There were a lot of complaints against him, both about the organization of infrastructure processes and about interaction with parliamentary groups and interest groups in parliament. There has been no communication there for a long time. He did not fulfill the wishes of the deputies from the Servants of the People. And if he did it, it wasn’t the way they wanted. And the effectiveness of his management was rather conditional,” recalls Vitaly Kulik.
At the same time, Apostrophe’s sources in the President’s Office say that these claims are more of a pretext, and Alexey Kuleba, the current deputy head of the President’s Office, responsible for regional policy and allegedly wanting to personally “steer” the topic of restoring infrastructure in the state, is being considered to replace Kubrakov.
To the public
According to the director of the Ukrainian Barometer sociological service, Viktor Nebozhenko, the media component is important in the logic of personnel changes.
“In fact, everyone is still preparing for the elections. And it is not surprising that the authorities are trying to take some steps. What NABU is doing or what the Cabinet of Ministers is now collapsing are all attempts to show that the president is not only in control of the situation, but is also capable of generally refreshing the Ukrainian executive power,” emphasizes Viktor Nebozhenko.
However, according to him, the arrival of new people in office can change little in the current power system of coordinates.
“Anyone who now heads this or that ministry, without a serious program for the radical restructuring of Ukraine on a military footing, will do nothing except “function” or steal. Well, what to do if people come just to take a post, without any plans for the future, except personal ones, of course,” notes Viktor Nebozhenko.
Another possible aspect of this situation is international.
“Most likely, these 60 billion that the United States promises us are associated with certain management obligations. The fact is that if you haven’t noticed, this is not about help, but about a loan, that is, a credit. And any bank or, let’s say, any country that gives a loan is very interested in having the country (the debtor – “Apostrophe”) led by people who could repay the loan,” Viktor Nebozhenko does not rule out.
