Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba resigned Wednesday, following an announcement last week from President Volodymyr Zelensky that a cabinet reshuffle was imminent.
On Thursday, Ukraine’s parliament approved President Zelensky’s nominee Andrii Sybiha as its foreign minister, replacing Dmytro Kuleba as part of the biggest government reshuffle since the full-scale Russian invasion.
Kuleba’s resignation came as at least seven people were killed and 35 injured in an overnight strike on Lviv, city mayor Andrii Sadovyi said Wednesday morning.
A child and a medical worker were among the dead, and others are in critical condition, he said.
The attack happened a day after two ballistic missiles blasted a military academy and nearby hospital in Poltava in Ukraine, killing more than 50 people and wounding more than 200 others, Ukrainian officials said, in one of the deadliest Russian strikes since the war began.
The missiles tore into the heart of the Poltava Military Institute of Communication’s main building, causing several stories to collapse.
The missiles hit shortly after an air-raid alert sounded, when many people were on their way to a bomb shelter, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said, describing the strike Tuesday as “barbaric.”
Poltava is about 350 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, on the main highway and rail route between Kyiv and Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, which is close to the Russian border.
The attack happened as Ukrainian forces sought to carve out their holdings in Russia’s Kursk border region after a surprise Ukrainian incursion that began August 6, and as the Russian army hacks its way deeper into eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian government needs ‘new energy’, says Zelensky of the reshuffle
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday his government needed “new energy” during a major reshuffle that saw the foreign minister and several others hand in their resignations.
“We need new energy. And these steps are related to strengthening our state in various areas,” said Zelensky, when asked about the reshuffle and foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba’s future.
“I am very grateful to the ministers and the entire cabinet team who have been working for Ukraine, for the sake of Ukrainians, for four and a half years, and some of them have been our ministers for five years,” he added.
A source close to the presidential office told AFP that Zelenskiy and Kuleba “will discuss and decide” his future post.
The announcement came a day after several other ministers and officials resigned in one of Kyiv’s most significant government reshuffles since Russia invaded two and a half years ago.
Kuleba – the face of Ukrainian diplomacy during the war – is the most senior of the ministers to offer to step down.
The 43-year-old has held the post since 2020 and, since Russia’s 2022 attack, has travelled the world to advocate for western support for Kyiv and sanctions on Moscow.
The president reiterated a call to Kyiv’s partners. “Every one of our partners around the world who helps Ukraine with air defense is a true defender of life,” he said.
Zelensky also said that “anyone who convinces partners to provide Ukraine with more long-range capabilities, enabling us to respond justly to terror, is working to prevent such Russian terrorist strikes on Ukrainian cities.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Germany will not slacken in its military support for Ukraine.
Russia warns ‘don’t cross red lines’ ahead of US-Ukraine missile deal
Moscow has warned the US not to cross a “red line” by giving Kyiv missiles that would be among its longest-range yet.
Washington and Kyiv are close to an agreement which would see Ukraine given Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (Jassm), capable of reaching targets deep inside Russia, US officials said.
Jassms have a range of about 370 km compared with the US-made ATACMS missiles that Ukraine currently possesses, which have a range of about 305 km.
Russia has repeatedly warned that supplies of long range missiles to Ukraine would breach its red lines. Fearing an escalation of the conflict, Ukraine’s allies have been reluctant to supply and, when they have, it is with the caveat that they not be fired at Russian targets.
On Wednesday, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said he wouldn’t be surprised if the US yielded to Ukraine’s demand for the weapons, adding that Volodymyr Zelensky was “egging on” the West.
“But they should understand – they are joking about our red lines here. They shouldn’t joke about our red lines,” Lavrov warned.
EU calls Russian shelling of Poltava ‘another targeted bloodshed’
The European Union has shared its grief with the families of the victims killed this week by two Russian ballistic missiles targeting Poltava, in Ukraine. This attack killed more than 50 people and injured over 200.
“It is yet another targeted bloodshed that proves Russia’s determination to continue with its brutal war against Ukraine and its people, trying to cause the highest possible loss of life and inflict large-scale devastation,” EU Lead Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Peter Stano said in a statement.
He highlighted that for the past two and a half years, Russia has been continuously terrorizing Ukraine’s population “with indiscriminate missile and drone attacks across Ukraine’s territory, cowardly aiming mostly at civilian targets”.
“This only underlines the need for Ukraine, in accordance with its legitimate right to self-defense under the UN Charter, to be able to effectively fend off such heinous attacks launched from military platforms in Russia and push the aggressor back,” Stano said.
According to Stano, the European Union remains committed to stepping up the delivery of military support, including air defense systems and ammunition: “These deliveries strengthen Ukrainian self-defense, save innocent lives, and reduce the level of the destruction in Ukraine.”
Compiled by Ana Dumbadze
