Sybiha will replace Dmytro Kuleba as Ukraine’s top diplomat as the country and its allies digest a swirl of changes to the cabinet by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that caught many off guard.
A former ambassador to Turkey, Sybiha has worked for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry since 1998 and has also served in Poland.
He will be joined in the cabinet by Olha Stefanishyna, who will become justice minister and will be responsible for European integration, while the Veterans Ministry will be led by the current Deputy Defense Minister Nataliia Kalmykova.
Oleksii Kuleba is to be appointed the Minister of Community Development, Territories, and Infrastructure, while Mykola Tochytskyi will head the Culture and Information Ministry, with a focus on intensifying the battle against disinformation, according to David Arakhamia, the head of the Servant of the People ruling faction.
All according to plan
The Ukrainian president said that the ministerial overhaul would “give new energy” to Ukraine’s institutions.
“Autumn will be extremely important for Ukraine. And our state institutions must be set up in such a way that Ukraine will achieve all the results we need – for all of us,” he said.
“To do this, we need to strengthen some areas in the government – and personal decisions have been prepared.”
But the cabinet shake-up comes at a sensitive time for Ukraine.
On Monday, a missile strike in the city of Poltava claimed 51 lives and left hundreds of people injured in one of the bloodiest days Ukraine has endured since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Russia has also battered other Ukrainian cities in recent days, including Lviv, where a mother and her three daughters died in one attack.
At the same time, Russian forces are pushing on with their grinding offensive in the Donbass, despite Ukraine’s dramatic seizure of Russian territory near Kursk.
Ukraine will also present a “victory plan” in Washington to the U.S. and its allies later this month, so the removal of Kuleba, a respected figure in international diplomacy, just weeks before a key diplomatic push for Ukraine has raised eyebrows.
But Zelenskyy has had few reservations about sacking people in the past. He has revamped his government a few times and in May last year dismissed his defense minister, and earlier this year the respected Valerii Zaluzhyni, the commander of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
Analysts have said the latest government “reset” had been planned for some time but was postponed as Zelenskyy focused on talks with Kyiv's Western partners to secure military and financial aid.
"This is a planned personnel overhaul of the government," said Volodymyr Fesenko, a Kyiv-based political analyst, told Reuters.
"Now half of the government will be renewed. This is Zelenskyy's style. He believes that the new minister brings new energy, new approaches, works more actively. He expects exactly this effect."
Bartosz Cichocki, a Polish former ambassador to Ukraine, has told TVP World that under Sybiha there was unlikely to be a massive shift in Ukraine’s foreign policy.
