Any government reshuffle that involves getting rid of Oksana Markarova as finance minister while keeping Arsen Avakov as interior minister is doomed to fail. Markarova is honest and competent; Avakov is neither.
But these are among the decisions made by an impatient President Volodymyr Zelensky as he sacked his prime minister, Oleksiy Honcharuk, after only six months on the job. Zelensky also ended up replacing most of the Cabinet, including elevating Denys Shmygal to prime minister.
There’s no question that the results are disappointing after nine months of Zelensky’s presidency. But Zelensky has only himself to blame, since he controls the executive branch and legislative branch through his Servant of the People party’s 247-member majority.
As the Kyiv Post’s four-part series “Unkept Promises” shows, no headway has been made in punishing multibillion-dollar bank fraud, in overhauling a corrupt law enforcement and judicial system, in reining in lawless big city mayors or in taming the nation’s oligarchs. His actions on March 4 show that no progress will be made, either.
With the changes, Ukraine will move farther away from an investor-friendly, rule-of-law Western democracy. With the departure of Chief of Staff Andriy Bohdan, who is looking better all the time, and the ascension of Andriy Yermak to the role, the Zelensky administration seems determined to get rid of most of its true reformers.
Yermak, by contrast, is focused on foreign affairs — particularly the misguided notions that peace is possible with Russia and that good relations with U. S. President Donald J. Trump will bring Ukraine benefits.
The domestic reform agenda, meanwhile, appears dead. Besides the departure of Markarova, Ukraine also lost such promising ministers as Andriy Zagorodnyuk at defense, Timofiy Mylovanov in economy and Anna Novosad in education.
The best remaining members of the cabinet, in our view, are Mykhailo Fedorov in digital transformation and Dmytro Kuleba as foreign minister.
Many of the others now leading the government have questionable records and reputations, especially Finance Minister Ihor Umansky.
Parliament also on March 5 compounded its sins by sacking Prosecutor General Ruslan Riaboshapka, an honest and competent leader who was making genuine efforts to root out incompetence and cronyism in the 11,000-person agency that has been a bastion of corruption. The fact that Zelensky did not stand up for Riaboshapka speaks volumes about poor presidential character. And it helps explain why no one could immediately be found to take over the economy, education, culture and energy ministries.
What is really happening? The five oligarchs who control the nation to its detriment are still in charge — Rinat Akhmetov, Ihor Kolomoisky, Victor Pinchuk, Petro Poroshenko and Dmytro Firtash. They, along with Avakov, are more powerful than Zelensky, who is misled by powerful aides Yermak, Serhiy Shefir and Security Services of Ukraine chief Ivan Bakanov.
Investment bankers such as Morgan Stanley, long-time Ukraine watchers such as Timothy Ash and many others quickly voiced disapproval. Ukraine’s relationship with the International Monetary Fund, its best creditor, is under strain. The lending program is stalled because Zelensky hasn’t been able to pass key laws on banking reform and creating an agricultural land market. Moreover, the decline in tax revenue threatens the state budget and Ukraine’s promise to hold deficit spending to 2.1% of gross domestic product.
Zelensky should watch again his “Servant of the People” TV series and movies. He seems to have lost the plot of the president as an effective and honest corruption fighter
