Home › Politics › What happened in Kyiv after the Honcharuk government fell?
What happened in Kyiv after the Honcharuk government fell?
Summary
A look back at the political reshuffle that followed the Verkhovna Rada's 4 March 2020 vote, alongside a diplomatic appeal over Flight 752.
What did Ukraine's government look like on 6 March 2020? It was a government in transition. Two days earlier, on 4 March 2020, the Verkhovna Rada had accepted the resignation of the cabinet led by Oleksiy Honcharuk, which had been in office for less than six months, and had begun forming a new one.
A cabinet voted out
According to reports from 4 March 2020, the Rada voted out Honcharuk and his ministers. President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed Denys Shmygal as Prime Minister. The parliament then started the process of assembling the government that Shmygal would head.
The change meant that by 6 March 2020 the country's executive branch was between teams: the outgoing cabinet had been dismissed, and the successor was still being put together.
An appeal over Flight 752
On the same day, 4 March 2020, a separate matter drew attention abroad. Canadian Foreign Minister François-Philippe Champagne urged Iran to allow access to the flight recorders of the Ukrainian passenger plane shot down in January.
The aircraft was Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, a scheduled service from Tehran to Kyiv. According to later background, on 8 January 2020 the Boeing 737-800 was shot down by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps shortly after takeoff, killing all 176 people on board.
Looking back
The two developments were distinct, but both formed part of the news picture around 6 March 2020: a rapid change of government in Kyiv, and continued international pressure for access to evidence on the downed airliner.
