On July 16, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. 261 people’s deputies voted for the relevant resolution No. 13485 during the plenary session. Online broadcast of voting led People’s Deputy from “European Solidarity” Oleksiy Honcharenko.
According to the current legislation, the approval of the Prime Minister’s resignation by the Parliament automatically entails the resignation of the entire Cabinet of Ministers. At the same time, the retiring government continues to perform its duties until the formation of a new government.
It will be recalled that on July 15, Shmygal submitted an application for dismissal from the post of head of government. Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed the opinion that Shmygal’s experience could be useful in the position of Minister of Defense, and he proposed Yulia Svyridenko, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, to head the new government.
Shmyhal headed the government on March 4, 2020 after the resignation of Oleksiy Honcharuk. Prior to that, he held the post of Deputy Prime Minister — Minister of Community and Territorial Development for only a month, and even earlier he was the head of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration. From the moment of his appointment, Shmyhal headed the government for more than five years and four months — the longest of all prime ministers during Ukraine’s independence.
During his tenure, there were repeated rumors about the possible resignation of the government. It was first discussed in June 2020, when the Verkhovna Rada did not support the government’s activity program. However, the leadership of the parliament at the time emphasized that this was not a reason for the dismissal of the prime minister.
The next waves of discussions occurred at the end of 2020 — the beginning of 2021, the summer of 2022, as well as the fall of 2023 — February 2024. At that time, the media assumed that changes in the government could take place in parallel with the dismissal of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The last time Shmyhal’s possible resignation was actively discussed in the summer of 2024. Although it was predicted at the time that it would take place in the fall, everything was limited to regular ministerial rotations.
