Ukraine's FM resigns as Russia warns of ‘very painful’ response to Kursk invasion

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has submitted his resignation as part of a major government reshuffle two-and-a-half years into the ruinous Ukraine-Russia war.

Ruslan Stefanchuk, speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, said on Wednesday that the legislative body “received a letter of resignation from the Minister for Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba," and the parliament would vote on the resignation request at the next plenary meeting.

Kuleba stepped down from his position following an announcement last week by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that a cabinet reshuffle was imminent as he tries to strengthen the government amid a protracted conflict between Kiev and Moscow.

The 43-year-old has held the post since 2020 and has since February 2022, when the war broke out, traveled across the world to advocate for Western support for Ukraine and sanctions on Russia.

On Tuesday, several ministers handed their resignations, including the ministers of justice, strategic industries and environmental protection.

Davyd Arakhamiia, a leader of Zelensky’s party in the parliament, said more than half of the current cabinet would undergo changes and the new appointments would be announced on Thursday.

Kuleba's resignation followed an overnight Russian attack on the western city of Lviv, which killed at least seven people and injured 35 as a child and a medical worker were among the dead, with others being in critical condition.

The attack took place a day after two ballistic missiles blasted a military academy and nearby hospital in Poltava, Ukraine's second-largest city, killing more than 50 people and wounding more than 200 others in one of the deadliest Russian strikes since the war began.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a report that its units had engaged in 193 battles with Russian army on Tuesday amid tense situation in Pokrovsk and Kurakhove in the Donetsk region.

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'Extremely painful' response

Russia's foreign ministry warned the West and Ukraine on Wednesday that Moscow would give an immediate and extremely painful response in the event of long-range strikes on Russian territory by Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces crashed through Russia's western border into the Kursk region in August in a surprise offensive.

Maria Zakharova, Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman, said the response would be "extremely painful."

Russia's Defense Ministry said Tuesday that over the past 24 hours, its units repelled multiple Ukrainian offensives and launched counterattacks in the directions of Kharkiv, Avdiivka and Donetsk, causing severe losses to Ukrainian military personnel and equipment, including tanks, armored vehicles and self-propelled artillery pieces.

Russia's air defense units were also reported to have downed one MiG-29 fighter jet and 37 drones on the same day.

In addition, the ministry claimed to have killed and wounded about 400 Ukrainian soldiers and destroyed 12 armored vehicles, rocket launchers and other weaponry in western Russia's Kursk Oblast.

Moscow launched its special military operation on February 24, 2022, aiming to liberate the Donbas region where the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk were suffering from regular attacks on them by Ukrainian forces.

Since the war started, the Western countries' support for Ukraine in fighting a proxy war against Russia has led to the delivery of hundreds of shipments of military equipment, including all kinds of weapons and munitions, to the former Soviet republic.

The Western countries even supplied long-range missiles, tanks and warplanes to Ukraine despite initial resistance, turning the conflict into a full-fledged war.

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