{"id":671757,"date":"2026-01-03T19:16:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T19:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/671757\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T19:16:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T19:16:21","slug":"zelensky-proposes-transferring-ukraines-defense-minister-to-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/671757\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelensky proposes transferring Ukraine&#8217;s defense minister to energy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                      <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/a1cef39_1671127969455-466224.jpg\" alt=\"Denys Shmyhal in Paris, December 13, 2022.\"   width=\"664\" height=\"443\"\/>    Denys Shmyhal in Paris, December 13, 2022.  LUDOVIC MARIN \/ AFP                        <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph  \">Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday, January 3, proposed moving his current Defense Minister Denys Shmyhal into the role of energy minister, the latest in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lemonde.fr\/en\/international\/article\/2026\/01\/02\/zelensky-names-spy-chief-budanov-as-new-head-of-ukraine-s-presidential-office_6749015_4.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">widening reshuffle of cabinet positions<\/a>. The Ukrainian leader did not explain why he was making the changes, which come at a critical juncture in the nearly four-year war with Russia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph  \">Shmyhal had only started working in the defense role last July. Zelensky hopes to replace him with 34-year-old digital transformation minister Mikhailo Fedorov \u2013 a relative political novice who is little-known to the Ukrainian public.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph  \">The appointments require approval from parliament, though it has largely coalesced around Zelensky since Russia&#8217;s invasion and is unlikely to torpedo his decisions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph  \">Announcing Saturday&#8217;s decision in a post on X, Zelensky said he hoped Shmyhal would use his &#8220;systematic&#8221; approach to the defense role in the energy portfolio. &#8220;I am counting on parliamentary support,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__paragraph  \">Zelensky separately announced a new chief of staff on Friday, after his previous top aide <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lemonde.fr\/en\/international\/article\/2025\/12\/04\/zelensky-without-yermak-the-story-of-a-split-at-the-top-of-ukraine_6748137_4.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">resigned<\/a> in November over a corruption scandal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"author__detail\">  Le Monde with AFP  <\/p>\n<p>              <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lemonde.fr\/en\/syndication\/\" class=\"reuse__content\" title=\"Reuse this content\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reuse this content<\/a>      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denys Shmyhal in Paris, December 13, 2022. LUDOVIC MARIN \/ AFP Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday, January&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-671757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115832775303485292","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}