Key ministers in Ukraine's cabinet reshuffle

By Olena Harmash

KYIV (Reuters) - Here are some of the key appointees in a Ukrainian cabinet reshuffle completed on Thursday and why their portfolios matter:

FOREIGN MINISTER: ANDRII SYBIHA, 49

Sybiha's appointment reflects the fact that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has taken a leading role in foreign policy since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Sybiha, a career diplomat without a prominent public profile, was named first deputy foreign minister in April 2024. Before that, he was one of several deputy heads of Zelenskiy's presidential office where he oversaw foreign policy and strategic partnerships. He was Ukraine's ambassador to Turkey from 2016 to 2021 and headed a directorate for consular services at the Foreign Ministry before that. 

DEPUTY PM FOR INFRASTRUCTURE AND REGIONS: OLEKSIY KULEBA, 41

This government portfolio is powerful as it confers some control over financial flows for wartime reconstruction. The durability and viability of infrastructure is also vital as Russia targets it to try to get an upper hand in the war.

Kuleba served as a deputy head of Zelenskiy's office overseeing regional policies from January 2023. That job involved coordinating ties between regional authorities and the military to build fortifications and support the development of mobile anti-drone groups across Ukraine. In the first year after Russia's invasion, Kuleba served as the regional governor of the Kyiv region that surrounds the capital.   

DEPUTY PM FOR EU INTEGRATION AND JUSTICE MINISTER: OLHA STEFANYSHYNA, 38 

Stefanyshyna, a lawyer by education, served as the deputy prime minister in charge of Kyiv's accession to the European Union and NATO military alliance from June 2020. She retains that portfolio and gains the functions of the old justice ministry as head of a bigger ministry combining the two.     

A key negotiator in Ukraine's efforts to join the EU, she spent most of her professional life working to integrate Ukraine with the West and get rid of its post-Soviet legacy. 

In the early years of her career, she worked at the justice ministry, laying the legal groundwork for closer EU-Ukraine cooperation.

AGRICULTURE MINISTER: VITALIY KOVAL, 43

Koval headed the State Property Fund, Ukraine's main privatisation agency from November 2023. Prior to that he was the governor of the Rivne region in western Ukraine. He also worked in the private sector, serving in various senior positions in banking, transport and agriculture.

MINISTER FOR STRATEGIC INDUSTRIES: HERMAN SMETANIN, 32

Smetanin is the youngest minister in the cabinet and his appointment is more evidence of a rapid rise through the ranks. 

An engineer by education, he was named head of Ukraine's largest state-owned defence consortium UkrOboronProm in June 2023. During that period, weapons and ammunition production increased. He also spearheaded a corporate governance reform to increase transparency at the state giant.

At the start of the invasion, he worked in his native city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, about 30 km from the Russian border, as the director of one of the Ukrainian tank factories.

MINISTER FOR VETERANS: NATALIIA KALMYKOVA, 37 

Kalmykova, a doctor by education, was a deputy defence minister from September 2023. Prior to that, she headed Ukraine's Veterans Fund and worked in Come Back Alive, one of the largest Ukrainian charity organisations. 

ENVIRONMENT MINISTER: SVITLANA HRYNCHUK, 38 

Hrynchuk was a deputy energy minister from September 2023. She was also a deputy environment minister for several months in 2022. Prior to that, she was an adviser to the finance minister and headed a working group in the ministry of energy on environmental protection and climate change. 

MINISTER FOR CULTURE AND STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS: MYKOLA TOCHYTSKYI, 56

Tochytskyi, a career diplomat, was a deputy head of Zelenskiy's office overseeing foreign policy from April 2024. He earlier served as Ukraine's ambassador in Belgium and Luxembourg and was also Ukraine's representative in the Council of Europe.

David Arakhamia, head of Zelenskiy's parliamentary faction, has said Ukraine needs to step up its efforts to combat disinformation and that a person with foreign policy experience was needed for that.

(Reporting by Olena Harmash; editing by Tom Balmforth and Philippa Fletcher)