Ukrainian foreign minister says changes in leadership will not affect ties with partners

ISTANBUL

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Tuesday said a shake-up in leadership will not change Kyiv’s relations with its partners.

“I don’t think that any changes in the government can influence our relations with our partners, because our partners respect the authority of the president … It’s a sovereign constitutionally guaranteed right of the president of Ukraine,” Kuleba told a press conference with his Portuguese counterpart Joao Gomes Cravinho in Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said there is a need to “reset” the country’s leadership, to replace several senior officials that will go beyond the military sphere. It is being said that Ukraine’s army chief, Gen. Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, could be replaced.

Kuleba said the team is united around the goal to defeat Russia, which launched a "special military operation" in Ukraine nearly two years ago, and restore the country’s territorial integrity.

He added that Zelenskyy has the constitutional right to “make decisions which he deems necessary to ensure efficiency of governance and achievement of the strategic goal.”

“I see two reasons when I will leave the office. The first one is if the president asks me to do so, because he offered me this job … And second, if I disagree with the way foreign policy is defined and administered. None of these reasons are in place as of now, therefore I keep working,” he said.​​​​​​​