KYIV, Nov 3 – President Volodymyr Zelensky’s party on Wednesday launched a major reshuffle of the government with lawmakers accepting resignations of five ministers, including ministers of economy and defense, amid complaints over weak performance.

This is the third major reshuffle of the Cabinet in 2.5 years of Zelensky’s leadership, underscoring persistent failures to achieve economic growth targets, incompetence, and lack of strategic vision.

In a bizarre move, Zelensky’s party has asked the ministers to skip reports on their time in the government, essentially changing an established protocol and keeping most lawmakers in the dark about the reasons for the reshuffle.

"We asked them not to come with a report,” David Arakhamia, the leader of Zelensky’s party in Parliament, told journalists. “I personally asked, because I do not have time to pass all the bills that are now on the agenda for this week, if every report adds an hour we would fail to stick to the schedule.”

Parliament accepted resignation of First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Oleksiy Liubchenko, the second most powerful official in the Cabinet, who was in charge of the country’s economic policy. Ukraine’s economy fell into recession in the second quarter, and the central bank is expecting the economy to continue decelerating in the next several months.

Lawmakers also accepted resignation of Defense Minister Andriy Taran amid complaints that the ministry was slow in adapting to accelerating schedule of defense equipment procurement, and for poor health.

Parliament accepted resignation of Oleh Uruskiy, deputy prime minister and minister in charge of strategic industries, Environment and Natural Resources Minister Roman Abramovskiy, and Deputy Prime Minister and Reintegration Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.

Reznikov’s resignation was apparently due to Zelenskiy’s plan to appoint him as the next defense minister.

Zelenskiy is supposed to show up at Parliament on Thursday before lawmakers vote to approve new ministers to replace those who had resigned.

Yulia Svyrydenko, a senior official at Zelenskiy’s presidential office, is likely to be approved as the next first deputy prime minister and economy minister, who will supervise the country’s economy.

Iryna Vereshchuk, a senior member of Zelenskiy’s party, is likely to be approved as the next deputy prime minister and minister in charge of reintegration of occupied territories, a job that has been held by Reznikov.

Pavlo Riabikin, who was in charge of the customs service, is likely to be approved as the next deputy prime minister and minister in charge of strategic industries, replacing Uruskiy. (tl/ez)