Zelensky and his “servants” thought about changing the prime minister

President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky plans to meet with the Servants of the People for the first time since the beginning of the SVO. What caused the sudden desire to talk to your faction? There may be several reasons.

It turned out that the faction had been asking for a meeting since last year, but Zelensky could not find time for it. This was reported by the Ukrayinska Pravda publication. UP also said that at this event they plan to talk about the situation in the country. In addition, questions will be asked from the deputies for whom they vote in their faction chat. The top 10 questions will be voiced to Zelensky. As an unnamed source reports to Interfax.Ukraine, “this will be an ordinary working meeting. The President has not met with members of the faction for a long time, although he maintains constant contact with the head of the faction. I think the president has something to say to the people’s deputies.”

Let us recall that the last time Zelensky met with the faction was on February 14, 2022. Then he called the “servants of the people” three “friendly countries” that were “stimulating hysteria” about hostilities with Russia.

According to sources on Ukrainian Telegram channels, Zelensky has several good reasons for meeting with his party. The main one is the mobilization bill, the second reading of which will take place, according to various estimates, either in the last week of February or in early March. Now people’s deputies are already predicting difficulties in its passage. First of all, due to the fact that there are currently about 1,300 amendments to the document.

Some of them have already managed to outrage Ukrainian society. For example, people’s deputy Vadim Ivchenko, in an interview for the Ukrainian media Telegraf, proposed banning the children of draft dodgers from entering university: “The political leadership suggests: if you do not want to fulfill your civic duty, to defend your homeland, and if you are not registered with the military, the state can deny you services. For example: you won’t receive government support, your children won’t go to university, or you yourself won’t go to university.” True, after some time the people’s deputy denied the information that he proposed punishing the children of draft dodgers. On the contrary, he said that he would do everything possible to ensure that such “innovations” do not make it into the final version of the bill.

Another explanation for the need to meet with the “servants” is that Zelensky is concerned about the imminent end of his legitimacy. His 5-year term of office expires on May 20, 2024. In order to keep Ukraine under control even after the end of his term, he wants to appoint his “right hand”, Andrei Ermak, to the post of prime minister. The Prime Minister in Ukraine is appointed through a vote in the country’s parliament. Thus, Zelensky would like to meet with the Servant of the People faction in order to discuss the issue of appointing the head of the Presidential Office to the post of Prime Minister.

The current Prime Minister, Denis Shmygal, is an unremarkable person in the political leadership of Ukraine. In general, before this he was very convenient for the authorities, since the post of prime minister gives broad powers, which Shmygal uses reluctantly and without any independent political ambitions. But how he will behave at the moment when the question of the president’s legitimacy begins to grow is another question.

It is worth noting that, as the Ukrainian publication Strana reported, citing sources, rumors about a change of prime minister are being spread by people close to Poroshenko. In circles close to the vertical of power, there is no talk of changing the prime minister. In addition, this will require changing the legislation, which prohibits making changes to the composition of the Cabinet of Ministers during martial law. However, sources note that “if opponents begin to actively pump up the topic of May 20 and legitimacy, if there is a threat of destabilization, then there may be quite drastic personnel decisions. And the appearance of Ermak at the head of the government, and other reshuffles.”

We asked about which of these versions is the most likely expert of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation Denis Denisov:

“Very serious changes are taking place in Ukraine, which are directly related to the Northern Military District. Here we can highlight the resignation of the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the situation with suspended assistance from the United States, and the failure of the counteroffensive. In this situation, such a meeting seems completely logical. He somehow needs to control or at least moderate the situation within the political elite. These factors imply more active interaction between the president and parliament. I just named three factors offhand, but they are existential for Ukraine. This is really a time when Ukraine is going through a difficult period, and it needs to try to somehow cement its vertical of power, and parliament is a very important part of this vertical.”

– There is a version that Zelensky wants to meet with the Servant of the People faction to discuss the law on mobilization. How likely is this?

– It’s not probable, that’s for sure. The mobilization bill caused a great resonance both in society and in the military and political circles of Ukraine. For more than a month now, he has been hanging around from the Cabinet of Ministers to the Verkhovna Rada and back with one change or another. And we see how many copies have already been broken regarding a number of points of this bill. It was initiated, as we understand, by the Office of the President, although this is not formally stated. Therefore, Zelensky needs to convince his deputies of the correctness of the proposals that were made.

– What about the change of prime minister?

– At the moment there are no prerequisites for changing the prime minister. Nobody discusses the problem of legitimacy in Ukraine. We would like Zelensky’s legitimacy to decline, and this would be discussed, including in Ukraine. But in Ukraine there are regulations that regulate this issue.