Cabinet shift continues as two more ministers resign

Ukraine’s ministers of defense and economy resigned on
Nov. 2. Andrii Taran filed his resignation as Defense Minister due to poor
health, interfax.com.ua reported. No reason was given for Oleksiy Lyubchenko’s
request to be relieved of the Economy Minister’s position.

Recall, Oleksiy Reznikov, who resigned on
Nov. 1 as Minister of Reintegration of the Temporarily
Occupied Territories, is expected to replace Taran, and has already been
publicly supported by the president’s faction in the parliament. Former First
Deputy Economy Minister and the current Deputy Head of Presidential Office
Yulia Svyrydenko is likely to replace Lyubchenko, pravda.com.ua reported.

James Hydzik: The Cabinet
shuffle has become a conga line leading out the door, and the probability of
further changes remains high. Regarding Defense, some foreign analysts are
pointing to the fact that it’s not a good idea to change defense ministers
during a build up of troops on the border, and the bad optics abroad may have
brought on the bristly refutation by Ukrainian officials of western media
reports on the buildup.

Reznikov will certainly need time to adapt to the
Defense portfolio, as his high-profile professional life in law would have made
him a strong candidate to be Justice Minister. However, Taran had been at
loggerheads with the military leadership, and it’s not a given that keeping him
in place would have helped. Moreover, build-up or not, there have been
80-100,000 Russian troops on Ukraine’s border since spring 2021, and with no
end of that presence in sight, waiting for a more opportune moment to replace
Taran would have been futile.

Lyubchenko’s departure had been posited since August,
when it became clear that he would be ineffective at least, and, according to
the press, he openly desired to become PM.