President Volodymyr Zelenskiy =announced a sweeping reshuffle of Ukraine's government on July 12 and signalled changes to the country's top law enforcement agencies. The shake-up of the wartime administration comes as Kyiv seeks to strengthen international alliances while facing growing political pressures at home.

The changes will see Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko leave office after only a year in the post and sent to the US as ambassador replacing former EU accession envoy Olha Stefanishyna, who has reportedly asked to leave the post for personal reasons. Svyrydenko has lots of experience with the US having lead the negotiation on the 2023 minerals deal demanded by US President Donald Trump for continued support of Ukraine.

"We discussed the details with Prime Minister of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko. We determined that these changes require a renewal of the Cabinet of Ministers. I am grateful to Yuliia for her clear, steady and effective work as prime minister, for her years of productive service on Ukraine's team, and I have offered her the opportunity to lead a new and important area of relations with a key partner," Zelenskiy said on social media.

The president said parliament could approve the changes as early as this week. Although cabinet reshuffles formally require the approval of the Verkhovna Rada, Zelenskiy's Servant of the People party retains a majority on paper that makes parliamentary approval is widely expected. The reshuffle would be the fourth major reorganisation of Ukraine's government since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The move comes as Ukraine enters a critical phase in the war, with Kyiv attempting simultaneously to deepen military cooperation with the US and Europe, secure additional Patriot air defence systems, accelerate domestic arms production and advance its long-delayed accession to the EU.

Under what Zelenskiy described as a new political strategy, experienced officials will each oversee specific foreign policy portfolios, including relations with the US, bilateral security cooperation, the proposed European anti-ballistic missile project, EU accession negotiations, ties with neighbouring countries including Poland and Hungary, relations with China and the Middle East, and work with international organisations.

Domestically, Zelenskiy said the government would focus on strengthening frontline and border regions, increasing deliveries of weapons and drones to the armed forces, preparing the country for winter, accelerating reforms of state-owned enterprises and implementing reconstruction agreements with international partners. He announced a new rapid reaction command last week that will unit several services to increase their response times to Russian attacks.

"Each priority area of foreign policy will be assigned to a specific person with substantial experience," Zelenskiy said.

The president also announced changes to the leadership of Ukraine's law enforcement agencies, although he gave no indication which positions would be affected. This proposal will cause concerns after he tried to ram through Law 21414 last July that would have gutted Ukraine’s anti-corruption organs by placing them under direct presidential control. That cause the first anti-government protests since the war started and Zelenskiy was forced to quickly backdown.

The reshuffle is seen by analysts as an attempt by Zelenskiy to shore up his domestic standing ahead of possible presidential and parliamentary elections this autumn. Martial law has so far prevented elections from taking place since Russia's invasion.

As part of these preparations Zelenskiy recently met former commander-in-chief General Valerii Zaluzhnyi last week, widely regarded as his strongest potential electoral challenger, and reportedly urged him not to stand in any future presidential contest. Ukrainian media have reported that Zaluzhnyi declined.

At the same time, Zelenskiy has already drawn another prominent potential opponent, former military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov, into the presidential administration after appointing him head of the president's office, further consolidating control the president’s control.

Over the last four years Zelenskiy has steadily centralised political authority through repeated government reshuffles and changes across the state apparatus, prompting critics to argue that he is increasingly showing authoritarian tendencies.

Those concerns intensified after the attempt to push through the controversial Law 21414. Those worries have been worse by the $100mn kick back Energoatom corruption scandal that has implicated everyone in Zelenskiy inner circle and lead to several resignations, including the powerful former head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, one of Zelenskiy closest friends. Zelenskiy has not personally been named by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) investigators, but Ukrainian law prohibits the investigation of a sitting president.

These controversies contributed to growing concerns in Brussels over the pace of Ukraine's governance reforms. In the European Commission's latest reform progress report card, Brussels downgraded Ukraine to a “B” for backsliding on anti-corruption efforts. That comes just as the EU formally opened negotiation on the so-called Fundament cluster in June as part of Ukraine’s EU accession bid that deals with judicial and anti-corruption reforms.

The shake up comes as Zelenskiy faces a mounting domestic political crisis as support for the president in his own Servant of the People (SOTP) weakens, partly due to the metastasise of the corruption scandal, where support has reportedly weakened after more than four years of war, economic hardship and repeated personnel changes.

Attention is now turning to Svyrydenko's successor, with several candidates vying for the job. Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak said Svyrydenko, who is one of Zelenskiy most loyal supporters, would remain within the president's team while taking up the ambassadorial post in Washington.

"Svyrydenko is staying on the team. But she will be ambassador to the US. All the rumours that someone had a falling out there – those are rumours," he said.

Zheleznyak said the leading candidate to become prime minister is Serhii Koretskyi, although Ukrainian media have also identified former prime minister Denys Shmyhal, Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov and Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov as possible contenders.