UPDATE - Ukraine’s foreign minister hands in resignation letter to parliament

ADDS FURTHER BACKGROUND & STATEMENT BY RUSSIA ON RESIGNATIONS

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has handed in his letter of resignation to the country’s parliament, its speaker said on Wednesday.

Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk in a statement on Facebook shared a photo of the resignation letter, saying it will be considered during an upcoming plenary session.

Neither Stefanchuk nor Kuleba have given any reasons for the resignation.

A day earlier, Stefanchuk announced that he received resignation letters from other Ukrainian ministers for reasons that have yet to be determined, as Kyiv undertakes the biggest government reshuffle since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war on Feb. 24, 2022.

Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk, Strategic Industries Minister Oleksandr Kamyshin, Justice Minister Denys Maliuska, and Environment Protection and Natural Resources Minister Ruslan Strilets have all handed in resignation letters to the parliament on Tuesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also fired his deputy chief of staff, Rostyslav Shurma, who had been in the position since 2021, according to a decree published on the presidential website.

Kuleba has served as Ukraine’s foreign minister since 2020.

During a morning program on the local 1+1 TV channel in August 2023, Kuleba said he would step down from the office under two conditions - if President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked him to do so or if he should get into “fundamental contradiction with foreign policy.”

"Autumn leaves are falling, branches are being exposed," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told state news agency TASS in response to Kuleba's resignation.