Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk set off to the U.S. on Sept. 28, [planning to spend the few months in Washington, D.C. to gain new experience and study, he announced on Facebook.
“I want to look at Ukraine from a distance. It is easier to see a holistic picture in that way because emotions often get the better of me in the stream of our daily political trash,” Honcharuk said.
Honcharuk will be in the U.S. capital ahead of the upcoming U.S. presidential election. “Many important things will happen there that will have a direct influence on Ukraine,” Honcharuk said.
Earlier in September, Honcharuk became a distinguished fellow of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. The think tank praised him for implementing market reforms and transforming Ukraine’s post-Soviet state apparatus. As a fellow of Eurasia Center, he is expected to bring his expertise in fiscal and structural reform and political reform.
After Honcharuk was ousted from the Ukrainian government on March 4, following President Volodymyr Zelensky’s reshuffle of the Cabinet of Ministers and of the President’s Office, Honcharuk said that he wanted to focus on studying, although he did not specify any educational institution. In the interview with Ukrainian TV channel 1+1 on Sept. 17, Honcharuk simply said that he wants to study in the U.S. “All of us have to learn how to build a democratic country here,” Honcharuk said.
Honcharuk was the youngest prime minister in Ukrainian history appointed to lead the country’s government at the age of 35 in 2019. Under his governance, Ukraine has implemented a number of reform-oriented decisions, including lowering interest rates for small business, restarting privatization, and initiating a land reform which is meant to launch a farmland market in Ukraine.
However, during the grand government reshuffle, Zelensky accused Honcharuk and his government of being timid, living in a Facebook bubble, and being out of sync with the rest of the country.
Honcharuk disagreed, believing he was fired for going against various influence groups by removing corrupt schemes across the Cabinet, its agencies, and state companies.
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