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Ukraine president rejects premier's resignation over leaked audio

Saturday, 18 January 2020 8:24 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 18 January 2020 8:50 AM ]

In this file photo taken on September 02, 2019 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) listens as the Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk speaks during a meeting in the capital Kiev.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has turned down the resignation of his prime minister, who offered to resign after clandestine audio recordings appeared to show him disparaging the president's knowledge of economics.

Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk submitted his resignation earlier on Friday, after the leak of a recording in which he was apparently heard describing Zelensky’s understanding of economics as “primitive.”

“Zelensky’s has a very primitive understanding of the economy," said the same voice.

Honcharuk, however, said that the recording was a compilation of "fragments of recorded government meetings.”

“Its contents artificially create the impression that my team and I do not respect the president, who is our political leader,” Honcharuk said in a message on Facebook on Friday.

"I came to the position to fulfill the program of the president. He is for me a model of openness and decency," said the premier.

"However, in order to remove any doubts about our respect and trust in the president, I wrote a letter of resignation and handed it to the president with the right to submit it to Parliament," he added.

He also appeared in parliament later on Friday and reaffirmed his respect for the president.

Later in the day, Zelensky said he has decided to give Honcharuk and his government a “second chance,” because, according to him, this was not the time to shake the country politically.

"You know my personal attitude to you, you know it well,” Zelensky told the premier in a video, sitting across from him in a grand meeting room. “I’ve decided to give you a chance.”

Zelensky, however, ordered law enforcement to find out within two weeks who was responsible for the recordings, according to the president's office.

"The unsanctioned surveillance and recording of conversations must not occur in the offices of the state authorities,” the president’s office said. “This is a question of national security."

The country is currently facing multiple international crises, including a long-time conflict in eastern Ukraine and an unwanted role in the impeachment inquiry of US President Donald Trump.

The US Democratic Party launched the inquiry in September into allegations that Trump abused his power to pressure Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden

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