In a string of rapid-fire decrees, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has sacked 15 oblast governors, removed a handful of other officials, made one appointment, and proposed firing Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko.
Besides the 15 governors, he also sacked two deputy chiefs of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the heads of six oblast SBU branches during the June 11 firing spree.
The president also signed a decree proposing that the Ukrainian parliament fire Lutsenko and Foreign Affairs Minister Pavlo Klimkin.
Additionally, Zelenskiy canceled several decrees signed by his predecessor, Petro Poroshenko, appointing members of the High Council of Justice state watchdog.
Ministers
Earlier Zelenskiy proposed that Verkhovna Rada fire a number of officials who served during Poroshenko’s term, including SBU chief Vasyl Grytsak, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak and Klimkin. However, the parliament refused to support the dismissals until Zelenskiy presents his candidates for the offices.
Ruslan Ryaboshapka, Zelenskiy’s deputy chief-of-staff, said that the reason calling for Lutsenko’s dismissal is that he has no legal education, a criticism that has dogged Lutsenko throughout his tenure.
Back in 2016, right before Lutsenko was appointed, the parliament passed changes to the law allowing persons with no legal education to occupy the office.
“This person carries out procedural functions, and, therefore, should have both legal education and experience in the field of law. Lutsenko does not have such experience,” Ryaboshapka said during a briefing on June 11.
Apart from the prosecutor general, Zelenskiy proposed that the parliament fire Klimkin and appoint diplomat Vadym Prystaiko to replace him as foreign minister.
Prystaiko has been one of Zelenskiy’s deputy chiefs-of-staff since May 22. Earlier Prystaiko served as Ukrainian ambassador to Canada and head of the Mission of Ukraine to NATO. He also occupied a number of positions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Governors
Of the 15 governors Zelenskiy fired, 12 were full-fledged heads of oblast administrations: Oleksandr Mysnyk (Chernihiv Oblast), Vadym Lozovyi (Khmelnytskyi Oblast), Stepan Barna (Ternopil Oblast), Mykola Klochko (Sumy Oblast), Oleksiy Savchenko (Mykolaiv Oblast), Oleh Syniutka (Lviv Oblast), Serhiy Kuzmenko (Kirovohrad Oblast), Oleksandr Tereshchuk (Kyiv Oblast), Oleh Honcharuk (Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast), Kostiantyn Bryl (Zaporizhia Oblast), Hennadiy Moskal (Zakarpattia Oblast) and Oleksandr Savchenko (Volyn Oblast).
The president also dismissed three acting governors: Dmytro Butriy (Kherson Oblast), Serhiy Parashchenko (Odesa Oblast) and Roman Tovstyi (Poltava Oblast). These individuals came to power after Poroshenko dismissed their predecessors shortly before the end of his presidential term.
In the case of Kherson Oblast, Poroshenko was caving into the demands of activists demanding justice for the killing of civic activist Kateryna Gandziuk. Activists had accused Governor Andriy Hordeyev of involvement in her killing, charges he adamantly denied.
However, in early April, Hordeyev tendered his resignation, saying he didn’t want the accusations against him to damage President Petro Poroshenko’s chances for reelection in the second round of the presidential election on April 21.
SBU
Zelenskiy dismissed a number of officials from the SBU, including two deputy chiefs, Oleh Frolov and Vladyslav Kosynskyi.
Ryaboshapka said that the deputies were involved in many illegal acts including the ones during the presidential campaign.
“A dismissal is only the beginning for them, other measures will be carried out in a procedural order,” Ryaboshapka said.
At press time, the SBU could not comment on the matter. The Kyiv Post could not contact the two deputy chiefs.
Zelenskiy also fired the heads of regional departments of the SBU in six oblasts: Odesa, Lviv, Vinnytsa, Zakarpattia, Chernivtsi and Volyn. In all these oblasts except Volyn, Ryaboshapka said that the presidential administration identified a number of smuggling cases.
Earlier on June 10, Zelenskiy fired the SBU head of Rivne Oblast.
High Council of Justice
Two of Zelenskiy’s other decrees focused on the High Council of Justice. The president canceled decrees that Poroshenko previously signed on May 13 to appoint Andriy Vasylenko and Mykhailo Isakov as members of the body.
The High Council of Justice was reorganized as part of Ukraine’s judicial reform. It is supposed to ensure the independence of the judicial branch. Two out of its 21 members are appointed by the president.
Ryaboshapka said that Poroshenko appointed the two in violation of the rules.
Mykhailo Zhernakov, the co-founder and chairman of the board at the Dejure Foundation non-profit, told the Kyiv Post that there were procedural violations, but that Zelenskiy should have challenged Poroshenko’s decrees in court rather than cancel them.
In order to appoint new members to the High Council of Justice, Zelenskiy signed a decree on holding an open competition to select candidates.
However, according to Zhernakov, three out of five members of the commission Zelenskiy created to select the candidates are “the representatives of the old judicial system.” Two other members had been in the commission appointed by Poroshenko.
Zhernakov said that, instead of fulfilling campaign promises to entrust the renewal and clean-up of the judiciary to civic activists and international experts, Zelenskiy appointed representatives of the old authorities.
Appointments
Zelenskiy also appointed Vladyslav Bukhariev the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.
Bukhariev is a lawmaker from former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna party and a member of the parliamentary Committee on the Legislative Support of Law Enforcement. In 2014, Bukhariev served as deputy SBU chief for several months. In 2007-2010, Bukhariev was the deputy head of the State Tax Administration.
