Ukraine’s parliament has approved the appointment of Andrii Sybiha as its new foreign minister, replacing Dmytro Kuleba as part of the biggest government reshuffle since the full-scale Russian invasion.
The president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said of the reshuffle, which is taking place at a critical juncture in the war with Russia, that the country needed “new energy”.
Sybiha, a career diplomat, worked for several years in Zelenskiy’s office. He is one of eight new ministers expected to be appointed on Thursday.
Critics have said that the reshuffle represents a consolidation of power by a small group of Zelenskiy loyalists allied with Andriy Yermak, the head of the president’s office.
A former ambassador to Turkey, Sybiha had also served as Yermak’s deputy.
Alexander Kamyshin, a popular figure feted for keeping Ukraine’s railways running through the war, is also being moved from the strategic industries ministry to the president’s office.
Others have raised eyebrows over the timing of the reshuffle, amid a recent increase in Russian missile attacks on Ukraine.
The appointments come as Zelenskiy is preparing to travel to the United States later this month to present what Kyiv has called his “victory plan” to the US president, Joe Biden, a key ally.
Zelenskiy has repeatedly called on allies to lift restrictions that ban Kyiv from using western weapons for long-range strikes into Russia.
Russian forces are inching forward in the east and have stepped up their campaign of missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities far from the frontline, hitting the power sector and other infrastructure in almost daily attacks.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on Thursday that Ukraine’s incursion into the Russian region of Kursk had failed to slow Russia’s own advance in eastern Ukraine and had weakened Kyiv’s defences along the frontline in a boost to Moscow.
That was countered by Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, who told reporters in Oslo that Ukraine had achieved “a lot” in its Kursk offensive.
Putin, speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, said that Russian forces were gradually pushing Ukrainian soldiers out of Kursk, where on 6 August Ukraine launched the biggest foreign attack on Russia since the second world war.
Ukraine had weakened its defences elsewhere and allowed Russia to accelerate its push into the eastern Donbas area, he said, reiterating that Moscow’s primary aim was to take full control of the Donbas.
Putin said: “The enemy’s goal was to make us nervous and worry and to transfer troops from one sector to another and to stop our offensive in key areas, primarily in the Donbas. Did it work? No.”
Ukraine’s top commander, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, has said that one of the objectives of the Kursk operation was to divert Russian forces from other areas, primarily in eastern Ukraine near the cities of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove.
Though the Kursk incursion was an embarrassment for Putin and the top military brass, Russian officials are now portraying it as one of Kyiv’s biggest tactical mistakes of the war, saying it ties down thousands of troops for little real gain.
“By transferring rather large and well-trained units to these border areas with us, the enemy weakened itself in key areas, and our troops accelerated offensive operations,” Putin said.
Zelenskiy has said Kyiv plans to hold territory in Kursk and that the operation, which he says is part of a not fully disclosed victory plan, has brought the war home to Russians.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report