Zelenskiy aims to woo both public and Trump with fresh-faced Ukraine cabinet

Reuters

5 days ago

KYIV, July 16 (Reuters) - Ukraine will get its first new prime minister of the war on Thursday, as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy tries to wrestle wartime defence spending into shape and win over both Donald Trump and a war-weary public with fresh-faced leadership.
Yulia Svyrydenko, 39, the only candidate for the post, is expected to take over a reshuffled cabinet, tasked with scaling up a fledgling arms industry and breathing life into an economy kept afloat by Western lenders.
Zelenskiy's choice of a young economist well known in Washington reflects the importance of repairing relations with the Trump administration after Zelenskiy's disastrous White House visit in February.
Svyrydenko's outgoing predecessor, Denys Shmyhal, is meanwhile likely to shift to the job of defence minister, a sign of the importance Kyiv now places in building up the capacity of its defence industry as the best chance of fending off Russia.
But with Zelenskiy still relying on a small handful of close allies to make his biggest reshuffle of the war, the moves could disappoint Ukrainians who want to see a wider talent pool at the top.
Svyrydenko, with a more prominent public profile than Shmyhal, has already played a role in shoring up ties with the United States and was one of Kyiv's main negotiators in reaching a deal that gives Washington preferential access to swathes of Ukraine's mineral wealth.
Her nomination sends a signal to Washington that Kyiv is prioritising the relationship, said political analyst Mykola Davydiuk.
"For us, it's a partnership that's not just about money but about values, about joint projects and generally about our common movement forward together," he said, summing up how he saw Zelenskiy's thinking.
Shmyhal, 49, was Ukraine's longest-serving prime minister. Moving him to the defence ministry, a demotion on paper, gives Zelenskiy an experienced technocratic economist in a job that oversees the bulk of Ukraine's state cash flow.
The 2025 budget allocates 2.23 trillion hryvnias $53.2 billion - about 26% of Ukraine's gross domestic product - for defence spending. The ministry has faced public criticism over poor organisation and procurement problems as Ukraine struggles to fend off a bigger and better-armed Russian military.
"This is a ministry that practically since the beginning of the war has suffered from a lack of systemic management," said Hlib Vyshlinsky, head of the Centre for Economic Strategy in Kyiv. He described Shmyhal's appointment as "an extremely good step".
Economically, Kyiv faces the tough challenge of finding money to finance its ballooning budget deficit as foreign aid is set to diminish but defence spending continues to grow.
Officials have said Ukraine would need about $40 billion in international financing in 2026 and could face a shortfall of about $19 billion.
Maintaining stability will only become more difficult as the war drags on, complicated by a lack of effective policymakers, said opposition lawmaker Andrii Osadchuk.
"Unfortunately, it is increasingly difficult for Zelenskiy and his coalition to add new, bright people to ministerial positions," said Osadchuk, of the Holos party, adding it could lead to "stagnation" in the executive branch.
Earlier this month, Shmyhal's cabinet came under fire from businesses and civil society for rejecting the candidacy of an economic security chief who had been unanimously backed by an internationally supervised committee.
Other opposition lawmakers have criticised what they describe as Zelenskiy's reliance on an ever-smaller band of close loyalists.
"Zelenskiy's short bench of personnel has long since turned into a stool on which maybe five or six managers fit," wrote lawmaker Iryna Herashchenko, a member of Zelenskiy rival Petro Poroshenko's party, on Wednesday.
"The only innovation (in Svyrydenko's appointment) is that a female manager has been added."
Elections are prohibited while the country is under martial law, a principle widely accepted within Ukraine given the difficulty of staging a vote while millions of people are displaced and cities are under bombardment and occupation.
But this also means it is difficult for a new crop of leaders to emerge.
While Zelenskiy himself remains broadly popular, the cabinet and other current or former senior officials have been ensnared in allegations of corruption and incompetence. Last month, authorities charged a deputy prime minister with taking a $345,000 kickback.
Ukraine's government and parliament suffer from low levels of public trust, said Anton Grushetskyi, executive director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.
However, he added that most Ukrainians, while wanting a widespread political renewal, are against wartime elections and accept that fending off Russia is the greater priority.