Ukrainian PM offers to resign after tapes surface of him criticizing country’s president

Ukraine’s prime minister presented his letter of resignation to President Volodymyr Zelensky Friday, after a recording of him saying Zelensky knew nothing about the economy became public, The Associated Press reports.

In a Facebook post, Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk wrote: “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.”

The recording reportedly caught Honcharuk referring to Zelensky as a “layman” in economics and said the president should be be more knowledgeable about the national currency.

Honcharuk called the recording “fragments of recorded government meetings,” according to AP, and said, “it is not true.” 

The Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, must vote on whether to accept the prime minister’s resignation, according to AP.

But political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko told the news service that it is unlikely that Zelensky will accept the resignation.

Zelensky, 41, is a former comedian and had no prior political experience besides playing a Ukrainian president on television.

Iryna Herashchenko, a lawmaker in the Rada, said that Honcharuk should have presented his resignation to the Rada first, not Zelensky, according to AP.

“In Ukraine, the parliament appoints the Cabinet,” she said.

Zelensky has called for an investigation of the recording.

“I demand that in two weeks, as soon as possible, we obtain information on who was recording the tapes,” he said.