Ukrainska Pravda: Zelensky offers the prime minister’s job to Naftohaz chief Serhiy Koretsky and a mandate to steel Ukraine’s energy system for the war’s hardest winter yet

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has offered the prime minister’s post to Serhiy Koretsky, the head of the energy company Naftohaz, the Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda reported, citing unnamed sources. The Financial Times and RBC-Ukraine had earlier named Koretsky one of the leading candidates for the job.

Koretsky is 48. He became Naftohaz’s CEO in 2025, after three years running Ukrnafta, which the authorities had nationalized, seizing it from oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky. Under Koretsky, Ukrnafta swung from losses to profits and became one of Ukraine’s most successful state-owned companies, Ukraine’s Channel 24 reported.

Zelensky had watched Koretsky’s work closely and considered him “one of the strongest public-sector managers,” Ukrainska Pravda’s sources said. In making the offer, the president named protecting Ukraine’s energy system and preparing for the coming winter among his top priorities. Because of Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, this winter could be the hardest since the start of the full-scale war.

Koretsky was surprised by the offer but accepted it. He said he did not fully grasp the scale of the challenges ahead but was willing to try, Ukrainska Pravda’s sources said.

Zelensky decided to reshuffle the cabinet after Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Olha Stefanishyna, told him last week that she intended to leave the diplomatic service, the outlet reported. For Zelensky, Ukrainska Pravda’s sources said, her unexpected resignation was “more of an opportunity than a problem”: He decided to appoint Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko as the new ambassador to Washington. The Financial Times, which also reported Svyrydenko’s move to a diplomatic post, noted that she had built relationships with members of Donald Trump’s team while preparing the minerals deal.

Svyrydenko led the Ukrainian government for just under a year. Two things set up her departure: a shift in the power structure after Kyrylo Budanov replaced Andriy Yermak as head of the presidential office, and Zelensky’s desire for a more independent government. The presidential office had long been the body that set the cabinet’s agenda, Ukrainska Pravda said, but Zelensky had grown visibly tired of that model. At meetings he might say something like, “Well, surely you can at least do this without me.”

Ukrainska Pravda also tied Svyrydenko’s departure to Ukraine’s presidential vote: Zelensky’s office had supposedly accepted that the election could not be held this fall and saw that as an opening to bring in a new cabinet.

A prime minister’s resignation brings down the entire cabinet. Its new composition has not yet been determined, Ukrainska Pravda’s sources said. The outlet drew particular attention to Mykhailo Fedorov, the new defense minister, who has been praised for his technology-driven approach to the job but criticized for his handling of military reform. Fedorov was among those Zelensky asked whether they would lead the government, according to Ukrainska Pravda. He declined, saying he had not yet had the chance to carry out his plans at the Defense Ministry.

After his meeting with Zelensky, Fedorov was confident he would keep his current post. But some of Ukrainska Pravda’s sources believed he could be moved to a “symbolic position,” since, in his six months at the Defense Ministry, he had come into conflict “with every faction, without exception, that had formed around the defense budget.” One possible sign of Fedorov’s coming demotion: While speaking with him, Zelensky asked Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko to be ready to move to the defense portfolio, Ukrainska Pravda reported.