Two weeks without Yermak passed unnoticed. Meanwhile, Kornienko becomes party head, Fedorov stays influential, and the President’s Office may be restructured — signaling subtle but important political shifts ahead.
“Two weeks without Yermak — and the country barely noticed.
Meanwhile, the authorities are preparing for other decisions: the Servant of the People congress, a change in party leadership, rumors of elections, and a reorganization of the President’s Office. Kornienko, Fedorov, Shmyhal, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — all part of the same puzzle.
Who is really strengthening their position? Are elections being prepared? And why might the head of the President’s Office turn out to be unnecessary?
All answers are in this video.
I’m Yaroslav Zheleznyak, and this is my blog on the “Zaliznyy Nardep” channel. Join the discussion in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss important updates.
Alright friends, news number one. We’ve fully survived two weeks without Yermak, almost without any noticeable changes, and congratulations on that.
Originally, I wanted to make this video about how the country is functioning after two weeks — or nearly half a month — without the head of the President’s Office. But it turns out there’s not much to report. Basically, nothing has changed at all, and hardly anyone noticed Yermak’s absence in terms of any shortcomings. There are plenty of positives, which we’ve discussed a lot.
But today’s video isn’t about him — that would have been a short.
Now, we’ll talk about what’s coming next week with the Servant of the People party, how it’s connected to the appointment of the head of the President’s Office, how it relates to certain personnel changes in the Cabinet of Ministers, and how it’s connected to the elections, which we probably also need to discuss.
So this will be a comprehensive overview. It will still focus on the event called the “Servant of the People Congress.” But this event is really interesting to almost no one. It just says a lot about future personnel — and not only personnel — decisions of the authorities.
So, I’m Yaroslav Zheleznyak, this is the “Zaliznyy Nardep” channel, and we’re getting started.
Let’s keep it brief, because there’s a lot of information. We’ll go chronologically. On December 17, the Servant of the People party will hold a meeting. To be honest, it seems it will be online, but maybe some people will come in person to vote — or rather, to elect a new party head.
Why? Because Olena Shuliak, who has already served two terms in this position, will most likely leave this role. Olena Shuliak is a smart and wise woman and doesn’t really want to be strongly associated with the party anymore.
Until recently, there were two candidates for this position. Believe it or not, one of them was again Mykhailo Fedorov. He obviously didn’t really want the role, but others really wanted him in it.
Before that, the party head was Oleksandr Kornienko, who held the position for quite a long time until his election as First Deputy Speaker of Parliament.
I’ll say right away that I’ve checked the legislation: Oleksandr Kornienko can continue to be party head even while serving as a government member, and so can First Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. Again, the idea was to send Mykhailo there, but thankfully he found some arguments to explain why it would be a really bad idea.
So, as of the morning of December 13, there is only one remaining candidate — Oleksandr Kornienko. He will be the new party head. I can confirm this, and my sources confirm it as well.
This is not a bad piece of news for the Servant of the People. Sasha is objectively a good organizer. He definitely knows what elections are. In general, I think he understands party activities fairly well. So this is probably good for the Servant of the People — if anything at all can be considered good for this party.
Now, let’s move on to the role of Mykhailo Fedorov. Many of my sources say that he will eventually lead a party. It just won’t be the Servant of the People brand, which, let’s be honest, is completely stagnating and already dead for everyone. Instead, it will be some new brand — something about Zelenskyy or about victory — depending on what focus groups show.
In the future, if there are elections, he could even head the campaign team for the upcoming elections, where President Zelenskyy himself would participate, if he decides to run for a second term.
The logic behind these actions — and this isn’t an insider tip, just my observations and logical conclusions — is likely to unfold in this way.
So, we will have, respectively, a formal spokesperson and the face of the election campaign — this will be Mykhailo Fedorov, just like in 2019, when Razumkov and partly Bohdan played that role. We will also have a curator for the elections and the organization of the technical process — these are very complex elections — which will be Oleksandr Kornienko. And, of course, there will be the candidate himself, most likely, as you can guess, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
That’s regarding the party. Can we say that Kornienko’s appointment now brings the elections closer or gives us more arguments to claim that the authorities are preparing for them? No — let’s be honest, I don’t think these things should be linked too strongly.
Can we say he will handle this task? Yes, I think he definitely knows and understands what elections are.
What does this tell us about personnel appointments? This whole move — and the fact that Mykhailo Fedorov was considered for party head and persuaded to take the role, and thankfully he refused — suggests that he most likely will not become head of the President’s Office.
I would normally say we have information on who will be the new head of the President’s Office. But it seems that, for now, there will be no head at all.
You’ve already seen in the media several fairly candid statements from the president saying that he would rather eliminate the President’s Office than appoint a head. Candid in the sense that he really thinks so; not entirely candid in the sense that the situation is a bit more complicated.
They have now come up with the idea of somehow reformatting the President’s Office into a group of advisors or merging it with the National Security and Defense Council. Who knows what will actually happen. But in short, the idea is to make this structure similar to Donald Trump’s administration: not much is publicly known about who heads the administration, and to loosely create several influence groups around the president instead of putting everything on one person.
Other candidates who were also vying for the head of the President’s Office are, at least for now, dropping out of the race.
Denys Shmyhal will remain in his position as Prime Minister. I’ve heard from the president’s comments that he does not intend to dismiss him.
Mr. Kyslytsia, who was also mentioned for this position, will most likely become the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Sybiga, the current foreign minister, will accordingly go as ambassador to Poland. Palisa will stay in his position and will not move to head the President’s Office.
Budanov also remains in his post. In short, all candidates will remain in their current roles for now.
Accordingly, no personnel changes are planned for the upcoming plenary week, which literally starts on Tuesday, and most likely, none will be planned.
So, it seems that, for now, everything will remain the same without any changes.
And here we return to the beginning of our video. As you’ve seen, the head of the President’s Office isn’t really needed. I’ve heard there are some bureaucratic issues within the President’s Office regarding documents, but hopefully, they will manage to figure out how to handle them without a head. Not that this is the main function of the position anyway.
In general, for the near future, the political layout will look like this:
Kornienko as party head, remaining First Deputy Speaker — this has no impact. Mykhailo Fedorov in his current position. Shmyhal in his current position. A new Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Hopefully, the coalition will finally appoint a Minister of Energy and a Minister of Justice. There’s also talk about the State Property Fund and the Ministry of Education. It will be absolutely chaotic if they still try to keep Kulieba as Vice Prime Minister for Reconstruction, a position he urgently needs to leave.
Guys, if you’re watching and you’re in power, just trust me — this is in your interest right now. You’ll be grateful and will keep sending thank-you messages.
That’s all. I’m Yaroslav Zheleznyak, from the “Zaliznyy Nardep” channel. Stay with us, subscribe, and hit like. Goodbye.”
