In Ukraine, some are sceptical of Zelenskyy’s shake-up as Russia advances

Kyiv, Ukraine – It was the biggest government reshuffle in Ukraine since the full-scale Russian invasion began – and the timing could not be worse.

Ukrainian forces continue to lose ground in the southeastern Donbas region even after trying to divert Moscow’s attention and manpower by occupying a chunk of the western Russian region of Kursk.

The public is weary of the war, draconian measures to mobilise men, almost daily blackouts and endemic corruption, while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s popularity declines.

According to an August survey by the National Democratic Institute pollster, his ratings dropped to 45 percent from 69 percent in January.

Earlier this month, a deputy prime minister and six cabinet ministers sent their resignations to the Verkhovna Rada, the unicameral parliament of Ukraine.

Dominated by Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party, the Rada readily voted to “relieve them of their duties”.

Zelenskyy’s explanation was overtly simple and general. “We need new energy and these new steps are connected to strengthening our state in different directions,” he told a news conference on Wednesday.

To some Ukrainians, the shake-up looks unnecessary and untimely.

“I honestly don’t understand why Zelenskyy is doing it. We need to concentrate on the war,” Nadiya Gorbatenko, a cashier at a fast food restaurant in Kyiv, told Al Jazeera. “It takes time for the new ministers to settle in, and it will affect the government’s work.”

And as the new appointees are settling in, Russian forces keep advancing in the Donbas region despite heavy losses.

Their push towards the strategic town of Pokrovsk nearly stopped over the weekend, but they keep pressing on nearby towns and villages.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces are severely undermanned, while seasoned servicemen are not allowed to demobilise even after life-threatening wounds.

“We are just tired. We don’t need new ministers, we need new soldiers,” an officer who began his service in 2021 and is recovering from a contusion in a Kyiv hospital, told Al Jazeera.

Who’s out?

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who tirelessly toured Western capitals to secure multibillion aid packages, was replaced with his deputy Andrii Sybiha, a seasoned diplomat who also served as presidential adviser.

Strategic Industries Minister Olexander Kamyshin, who oversaw domestic arms production, was substituted with Herman Smetanin, a 32-year-old head of the state consortium of defence companies.

The justice, environment and reintegration ministers were also replaced with obscure officials known for their loyalty to Zelenskyy.

Opposition figures cried foul, claiming that the president prefers dogged devotion to competence.

“We need effective and empowered ministers, but the parliamentary majority has no one to offer, and [the presidential administration] comes up with things that make the nation tremble every time,” Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, a lawmaker with the European Solidarity, a party of Zelenskyy’s predecessor and archrival Petro Poroshenko, said in televised remarks.

The party has long accused Zelenskyy of concentrating power by firing officials and top generals who disagree with him and dare make their disagreements public.

Last year, Zelenskyy dismissed top general Valerii Zaluzhny and Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.

But observers say any dissenters within the government have already been weeded out after Zelenskyy came to power in 2019.

“The government of Ukraine fully, and I would like to emphasise it, fully depends on the presidential administration, before the reshuffling and after,” Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta think tank in Kyiv, told Al Jazeera.

He said the reshuffling had to do with Zelenskyy’s penchant for “motivating” the reshuffling of officials of all levels.

“He thinks that it contributes to more active, more motivated work of ministers. That’s his conviction,” Fesenko said.

An artilleryman of the 15th Operative Purpose Brigade Kara-Dag of the National Guard of Ukraine is seen at his position at a front line near Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region [Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/Serhii Nuzhnenko via Reuters]

Another reason for the reshuffling was that five ministers, or almost a quarter of the cabinet of 22, have not been officially confirmed and served in an acting capacity.

Meanwhile, some ministries needed to be restructured or eliminated altogether.

The Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories – Russia-annexed Crimea and separatist-controlled parts of the Donbas region – was created in 2014 to implement the Minsk accords with Russia.

It helped evacuate and integrate residents who fled the occupied regions and organised prisoner swaps but largely lost its purpose as Kyiv refused to stick to the accords.

Therefore, its head, Iryna Vereshchuk, will now serve as deputy head of the presidential administration under Andriy Yermak, who is widely seen as the “grey cardinal” of Ukrainian politics.

“Decisions on appointments have been delayed since the [full-scale invasion] began and it made no sense to keep postponing them,” analyst Fesenko said.

Other observers say the reshuffling had to do with the public’s disappointment in the course of the war and the government’s failure to tackle corruption.

“There may be show trials [of corrupt officials], very fast ones, that are impossible now, or a dramatic renewal of the government,” Kyiv-based analyst Igar Tyshkevych told Al Jazeera.

He said Zelenskyy needed the shake-up to divert the public’s attention from corruption and the dysfunctional court system.

Defence installations in the troubled Donetsk region have not been completed, and the official who was in charge of building them faces up to 10 years in jail for “illicit enrichment”.

But Pavlo Kyrylenko claimed last month that his father-in-law “made $300,000 on selling raspberries” from his farms after anticorruption officials accused him of buying pricey land plots and luxurious apartments.

The cabinet reshuffling is nothing but a public relations stunt as most of the fired ministers got new jobs in the presidential administration – where their replacements came from, another observer said.

“This is just a media-friendly shake-up, a rotation between the cabinet and the administration, to show the public in the fall how the government has been renewed,” the analyst told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

He said only one key minister, Kuleba, was replaced, while heads of law enforcement agencies, finance, health and education ministries kept their jobs.

“They only touched the Foreign Ministry,” the analyst said.