Next Cabinet to decide on Klitschko fate, president says

The next Cabinet of Ministers will decide in the fall
on whether to dismiss Vitali Klitschko from the position of Kyiv city
administration head, the President’s Office said in an Aug. 14 statement. The
same morning, the Cabinet of Ministers decided not to review Klitschko’s
dismissal, as reported by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

At the same Cabinet meeting, PM Volodymyr Groysman
proposed adopting new legislation to clearly delineate and balance the
responsibilities between the Kyiv city administration head, appointed by the
president, and the elected Kyiv City Council head, elected by the capital’s
residents.

Recall, the politician elected to serve as the head of
the Kyiv City Council (commonly referred to as “mayor”) is duly appointed to
the post of Kyiv city administration head by the president. This occurred when
Klitschko was elected in 2015, but now the Zelensky administration wants to
appoint its own official to serve as city administration head, widely believed
to be 1+1 television network general director Oleksandr Tkachenko.

Zenon Zawada: The battle
between Klitschko and Zelensky will continue until next year’s mayoral
elections. Even if Zelensky is able to appoint a new Kyiv city administration
head, Klitschko will still have access to authority, and the mass media, as
Kyiv City Council head. And he will be able to rally anti-Zelensky political
forces – which will certainly grow by the time of next year’s elections in
October – around his mayoral candidacy.