Kyiv's government reshuffle: what happened before 7 March 2020
A look back at the days around 7 March 2020, when Ukraine's parliament replaced the Honcharuk cabinet and the Flight 752 investigation remained in focus.
What was Ukraine's political picture on 7 March 2020? It had been shaped by a change of government in Kyiv just days earlier, on 4 March 2020.
That day, the Verkhovna Rada voted out the government of Oleksiy Honcharuk after less than six months in office. The Rada accepted the cabinet's resignation and began forming a new government under Denys Shmygal. President Volodymyr Zelensky had proposed Shmygal as Prime Minister.
The change meant that by 7 March 2020 the country's executive branch was in transition: one cabinet had gone after a short tenure, and its successor was being assembled.
The Flight 752 investigation
Also on 4 March 2020, Canadian Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne urged Iran to allow access to the flight recorders of the Ukrainian passenger plane shot down in January. The aircraft was Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, a Boeing 737-800 flying from Tehran to Kyiv. On 8 January 2020 it was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shortly after takeoff, killing all 176 people on board.
The appeal kept the question of access to the recorders on the international agenda in the same days that Ukraine's domestic politics were being reshaped.
