Ukraine's top diplomat Kuleba resigns amid ministerial shake-up

The Ukrainian parliament received a letter from Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, in which he announced his resignation from the position. His resignation will be considered at one of the upcoming plenary sessions.

The Verkhovna Rada (parliament) of Ukraine received a letter from Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, in which the head of diplomacy announced his resignation from this post, reported the Chairman of the Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk, on Facebook on Wednesday.

"The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine received a request from the Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, regarding his resignation from his post. The resignation will be considered at one of the upcoming plenary sessions," the statement reads.

Kuleba began his career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2003 and has held various positions within the ministry since then. According to the ministry's website, he introduced "the concept of digital diplomacy, strategic communication, cultural diplomacy, and public diplomacy" at the ministry.

In 2016, he was appointed Ukraine's permanent representative to the Council of Europe. From 2019 to 2020, he served as the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine. He took over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in March 2020.

On Tuesday, Stefanchuk announced that Ruslan Strilets, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, Oleksandr Kamyshin, the head of the Ministry for Strategic Industries, and Denys Maliuska, the Minister of Justice, had also submitted their resignations.

Reuters noted that, taking previous resignations into account, five ministries are currently without a minister. The agency assessed that President Volodymyr Zelensky and his circle might want to fill these vacancies before the September trip to the United States for the UN General Assembly.