Prime Minister of Ukraine Alexey Goncharuk wrote a letter of resignation. He announced this on his Facebook. As he explained, this is due to the appearance in social networks of audio recordings of the meeting of the Ukrainian government.

“I came to the post to carry out the president’s program. He for me is a model of openness and decency. However, in order to remove any doubts about our respect and trust in the president, I wrote a letter of resignation and handed it to the president with the right to enter the parliament, ”the politician said in a statement.

Earlier, an audio recording of the meeting appeared on the network, at which Goncharuk, the head of the Ministry of Finance, Oksana Markarova, and the deputy head of the president’s office, Julia Kovaliv, were present. A man with a voice similar to Goncharuk’s voice says the president has a “very primitive” understanding of economic processes. He calls himself "a complete ignoramus in the economy."

“Zelensky has a very primitive understanding of economic processes,” says a man whose voice is attributed to Goncharuk.

The press service of the Cabinet, commenting on this audio recording, noted that they did not own information about its authenticity. Goncharuk claims that it was mounted from records of other meetings.

“In recent days, all of you have witnessed events unfolding around networked files mounted from fragments of government meeting records. Their content artificially creates the impression that my team and I do not respect the president, who is our political leader, ”said the Prime Minister.

He also emphasized that such manipulations are beneficial to “many influence groups” who are trying to gain access to financial flows.

“The head of state will consider the statement”

A letter of resignation came at the disposal of Zelensky, the press service of the president’s office said.

“The head of state will consider this statement. The office of the President of Ukraine will report the results of the review separately, ”the Telegram office said in a statement.

Also in the president’s office, it was reported that Zelensky demanded that law enforcement authorities establish those involved in this audio recording within two weeks.

According to Goncharuk, Zelensky can submit his resignation letter to parliament “at any time” - according to the procedure for the resignation of the Prime Minister of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada should consider this issue. It shall be put to a vote no later than 10 days after the application is submitted to parliament.

If the Rada dismisses him, then the whole government will have to leave.

The head of the ruling faction of the presidential party, “Servant of the People”, David Arahamia, said that Goncharuk would come to the Rada after a meeting with Zelensky.

A RT source in the party believes that Goncharuk will not leave his post, and Zelensky will publicly support him.

“I think that Goncharuk will not be fired, and Zelensky will have to publicly support the position of the Prime Minister. This will be a good sign for Western partners who support the government’s actions, ”the channel’s interlocutor said.

  • © Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters

The head of the Ukrainian analytical center, economist Alexander Okhrimenko, also does not exclude that the prime minister will not leave his post.

“The president has not officially signed the statement yet, and there is even talk that this may be some sort of blackmail by the president, and the president may not sign it. It may turn out that Goncharuk will not resign, and then there may really be radical changes in the politics of Ukraine, ”he told RT.

The "Fatherland" allowed that the audio recording posted on the Internet is a provocation arranged by the supporters of businessman Igor Kolomoisky.

“The most important question is how the prime minister’s conversation was recorded. And the society has not received an answer to this question. I think this was a provocation that was beneficial to Igor Kolomoisky’s supporters. The government plans to make unpopular decisions that are not beneficial to the oligarchs. I think Zelensky will have no choice and will have to support the prime minister. For the sake of this, Goncharuk wrote his statement, ”the RT source in the party is convinced.

And an interlocutor of RT in the Golos party noted that the incident with Goncharuk indicates a threat hanging over other members of the Cabinet.

“None of the members of the government feel safe. If anyone can record conversations of the prime minister, what can be said about ordinary ministers. If the security system is not properly established, then no one will carry out any reforms, ”the deputy said.

The fact that Goncharuk does not intend to resign was admitted by the Ukrainian political scientist and economist Alexander Dudchak.

“In fact, it may well turn out that he’s not going to leave anywhere, because in the Rada a majority that will not necessarily vote for his resignation,” he told RT. “So it could be a tricky move that has already been used in the history of the aftermath of Ukraine.”

At the same time, the government itself has virtually no significant achievements in the portfolio during its work, says Andrei Suzdaltsev, deputy dean of the HSE faculty of world economics and world politics.

“They created the illusion of some activity, some activity. In fact, the prime minister for these six months, even more, did not present any detailed project or government action plan regarding improving the socio-economic situation of the Ukrainian population, on investments, how to get out of debt. They knocked out the next tranche (IMF) with tremendous effort, and the achievements end there, ”he stressed in an interview with RT.