Ukraine’s prime minister submitted his resignation Friday, days after he was caught on tape saying the country’s president knows nothing about the economy.
“I took this post to implement the president’s program. He is an example of transparency and decency to me,” he said.
“However, in order to dispel any doubts about our respect and trust for the president, I have written a resignation letter and submitted it to the president for introduction to parliament,” Honcharuk’s statement read.
Earlier this week an audio recording surfaced in which Honcharuk appeared to make disparaging comments about Zelenskiy’s understanding of economics. He called Zelenskiy “a layman” in economics and said the president should be better educated about the national currency.
Honcharuk said that the recording was a compilation of “fragments of recorded government meetings” and blamed unidentified “influential groups” for making it look like he doesn’t respect the president. “It is not true,” the prime minister insisted.
The Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, must vote on whether to accept the resignation. Zelenskiy’s office confirmed that it had received the letter and said the president would take it under consideration.
“In Ukraine, the parliament appoints the Cabinet,” she argued, adding that so far the parliament hasn’t received any documents related to the prime minister’s resignation.
