Kuleba's exit deepens Ukraine's cabinet reshuffle
A look back at the 4 September 2024 resignation of the foreign minister, which followed a wave of departures from the government.
What did it mean for a government when more than a third of its cabinet seats fell empty within days? On 4 September 2024, Ukrainian foreign affairs minister Dmytro Kuleba resigned from office amid a cabinet reshuffle.
His departure came a day after five Ukrainian ministers had stepped down from their positions. Among them was Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna. Taken together, the resignations left over one-third of the cabinet vacant, and Kuleba's exit added the head of foreign affairs to the list.
A diplomatic backdrop
The foreign ministry's portfolio had been in the news in the days before. On 2 September 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Mongolia to discuss a China–Russia gas pipeline, which was meant to recoup Russian losses from Western sanctions. Ukraine and the European Union had urged Mongolia to arrest him under his International Criminal Court warrant.
The reports from 4 September 2024 describe the resignation as part of a wider reshuffle rather than an isolated departure. Within the space of two days, a substantial part of the cabinet had left its posts, and the foreign affairs minister was among those who did.
