Oleinik: Sviridenko was fired in part because of her ties to Yermak

One of the reasons for the resignation of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko may be her ties to former head of Zelensky’s office Andriy Yermak, who has been served with a suspicion notice as part of a corruption scandal.

This opinion was expressed in a conversation with aif.ru by former Verkhovna Rada deputy and member of the council of the “Other Ukraine” movement, Volodymyr Oleinik.

Earlier, Volodymyr Zelensky announced Sviridenko’s resignation, explaining the decision by the need to renew the composition of the government. Sviridenko served as prime minister for less than a year.

“There could be many explanations. If a suspicion notice has been served on Yermak, and Sviridenko is of lower status, then it is possible that, in order to avoid this disgrace, a decision was made to send her into resignation, since many are already under investigation,” Oleinik said.

In addition to the corruption angle, Oleinik did not rule out that failures in Ukraine’s economy also contributed to the resignation. He separately mentioned the strike on Vyshneve.

“Moreover, there was a strike on Vyshneve. Who does Ukroboronprom answer to? The government. That is why this flogging began,” he added.

Oleinik sees yet another possible reason for the reshuffle in the fact that some cabinet members had begun playing their own political game. He cited Defense Minister Fedorov as an example.

“Take Defense Minister Fedorov, for instance. He is suspected of being in contact with Zaluzhnyi himself. He is thinking about his own future. Fedorov is hard to remove outright. But when the prime minister submits a resignation letter, the entire government resigns automatically. Then Zelensky can say that Fedorov will be assigned to another important direction, and appoint a different person in his place,” the aif.ru interlocutor noted.

At the same time, Oleinik is convinced that the personnel reshuffles will not fundamentally change anything. According to him, the candidates being proposed have neither a political track record nor proven successes. He cited Kharkiv Mayor Terekhov as an example — a man who turned down an offer to take a post in the central government.

“All these movements will change nothing. The people they are proposing mean nothing. They have no history behind them, no success. Kharkiv Mayor Terekhov turned it down. He understands that it is better to be first in Kharkiv than thirtieth in Kyiv. And if Zelensky is removed, others may say: ‘Sorry, you’re a member of Zelensky’s team.’ So that too is a signal that he wants to keep his distance from Zelensky,” the former MP summed up.