shifts

July 13 (UPI) — Yulia Svyrydenko has resigned as prime minister of Ukraine, as President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that she would be assuming a new position amid a shift in the war-torn country’s political strategy.

Svyrydenko stepped down on Sunday, five days short of serving a full year as prime minister. No reason was given.

Her resignation came as Zelensky said in a statement that “Ukraine is changing its political strategy.”

Though he did not detail specifically how or why the change was necessary, he indicated the new strategy would prioritize implementing the agreement with the United States for Ukraine to manufacture Patriot missile systems, advancing Europe’s anti-ballistic missile defense project, progressing Kyiv’s European Union membership, improving relations with Poland and Hungary and creating ties with the Middle East for security and economic cooperation and with China to help Russia’s War.

“Accordingly, personnel changes will begin in Ukraine to ensure the implementation of the updated political strategy,” Zelensky said in a statement.

He said he discussed the details with Svyrydenko and together, “we determined that these changes require a renewal of the Cabinet of Ministers.”

“I am grateful to Yulia for her clear, steady and effective work as prime minister, for her years of productive service on Ukraine’s team, and I have offered her the opportunity to lead a new and important area of relations with a key partner,” he said.

“I expect that, together with MPs, we will make the corresponding changes in the government of Ukraine. There will also be changes among the heads of law enforcement agencies.”

Svyrydenko said in a separate statement that she was grateful to Zelensky and was proud to have led the government as the country defended itself against Russia’s invasion.

“At this moment, it is critically important to unite all our strength and resources to make Ukraine stronger,” she said.

“I remain ready to serve the Ukrainian state and carry out every task aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s position, defending our national interests and bringing a just peace closer.”

The announcement also came about seven months after Zelensky’s administration underwent a major reshuffle after 11 officials quit following a mass corruption scandal that rocked the government.

Zelensky separately said Sunday that he met with Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal and Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov, among other officials.

Uzbekistan’s largest-ever public market transaction has highlighted growing investor interest in the country and its economic reforms, while shifting attention to the next stage of developing its financial markets.

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The listing of the National Investment Fund of Uzbekistan, managed by Franklin Templeton, raised more money than all previous IPOs in the country combined over the past 30 years, according to Marius Dan, Central Asia CEO at Templeton Global Investments.

For investors and market operators, the transaction has drawn attention to a wider issue: how Uzbekistan develops the rules, institutions and market depth needed to support capital markets, debt financing, venture capital and private investment.

“What investors really want to know is that they’ll put their money in and that they will get their money back,” Julia Hoggett, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, told Euronews.

Hoggett said investors usually begin by looking at a country’s fundamentals, including currency stability, inflation, economic growth, population trends and assets, before turning to the regulatory environment.

Building the infrastructure behind investment

Uzbekistan is preparing new financial legislation as it seeks to expand the range of financing available to companies and investors.

Laziz Kudratov, the country’s minister of Investment, Industry and Trade, told Euronews that legislation establishing the Tashkent International Financial Centre is expected to be signed soon.

The project would create a separate jurisdiction based on common law principles. Kudratov said the aim is to give foreign financial companies a legal environment based on international standards rather than requiring them to operate solely through local legislation.

He also said the planned jurisdiction would include 50 years of tax incentives, including exemptions from corporate income tax, value-added tax (VAT), property tax and customs duties.

The government is also preparing legislation covering alternative investment structures, including venture capital, private equity and limited partner-general partner investment models.

“We are also coming up with a new law on alternative investments,” Kudratov said. “It will create a framework to protect venture capital, LP and GP investment, and private equity investment in Uzbekistan.”

Dan said the National Investment Fund listing showed that international investors were willing to participate when transactions were structured in the right way.

“The initial public offering of the National Investment Fund shows that, in the right structure, investors are very keen to participate in the capital markets of the country,” he said.

Creating a deeper market

Dan said Uzbekistan’s capital market would need more companies, greater liquidity and more foreign institutional investors in the coming years.

He said continued listings of state-owned enterprises, both within and outside the National Investment Fund’s portfolio, would be important in broadening the investment universe.

Local debt markets are also beginning to attract more attention, he said, with retail investors looking more closely at investment opportunities inside Uzbekistan.

Kudratov said reforms introduced since 2017 had changed the investment environment through tax reforms, currency liberalisation and the removal of restrictions on profit repatriation.

“Any investor can come, invest and get their revenues out of the country within one day,” he said.

For Hoggett, investor confidence also depends on a proven track record.

“You can’t change things overnight and say people need to believe it. They need the evidence to see it,” she said.

Broadening participation

The growth of local debt markets and the entry of more retail investors are early signs that Uzbekistan’s financial market is beginning to widen beyond foreign institutional capital, according to Dan.

Hoggett said public markets can play a wider role by opening investment opportunities to more participants.

“The public markets are democratising,” she said.

Hoggett added that private companies are often owned by a relatively small group of investors, while public markets allow a broader range of investors to access company growth. That wider access comes with stronger disclosure requirements for issuers.

For Uzbekistan, broader participation would mean more than attracting foreign capital. It would also involve creating opportunities for domestic investors to participate in the growth of listed companies, debt markets and other financial products.

Governance and market discipline

Governance remains central to the development of Uzbekistan’s capital markets.

Dan said several companies within the National Investment Fund’s portfolio had already introduced board-level changes, including the appointment of independent directors.

“Corporate governance is key,” he said.

He described stronger oversight of state-owned companies as part of improving their operations.

Hoggett said public markets also impose discipline on companies seeking capital.

“The first rule of doing an IPO is meet your estimates, hit what you say you’re going to do,” she said.

That requires companies to build systems, controls, accounting capacity, finance teams and planning processes, she said. Hoggett added that such structures can help companies operate at scale and grow faster.

Less than two months after being sued by two former housekeepers, Kylie Jenner has been hit with a third workplace lawsuit. The beauty mogul’s former private chef alleges a grueling workload led to her miscarriage.

Filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, the complaint alleges the woman routinely worked 11- to 12-hour shifts, five days a week, and was assigned physically demanding tasks despite alerting supervisors to her high-risk pregnancy.

A representative for Jenner did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

According to the filing, reviewed by The Times, the woman was told she was selected to work as Jenner’s private chef around Thanksgiving 2024. In early December 2024, the woman claims she informed her supervisors, also named as defendants, that she was three months pregnant and “required reasonable accommodations to protect her health and pregnancy.”

On New Year’s Eve in 2024, supervisors who had allegedly been hostile with the former chef directed her to “lift and transport heavy food items across the street and uphill without assistance,” the documents say.

As a result of the physical exertion, the former chef claims that she “became dizzy, began choking and gasping for air, and required assistance from security personnel, who intervened by providing water and aid.”

Around Feb. 1, 2025, the then-chef, five months’ pregnant at the time, was assigned to work Jenner’s child’s birthday event in Palm Springs, where she wasn’t provided “adequate support” despite the scale and demands of the party, according to the lawsuit. The former chef claims that when she asked for help and expressed concern over the workload, she was ignored by supervisors.

“Due to exhaustion and overwhelming physical strain, [she] broke down emotionally in the bathroom during the event,” reads the suit. “That evening, [she] experienced extreme physical exhaustion and heaviness throughout her body as a result of the prolonged and intense workload.”

The next morning, while the former chef was still in Palm Springs, the filing states that she awoke experiencing severe hemorrhaging and drove herself to the emergency room. “At the hospital, [she] was informed that there was no detectable heartbeat and that she had lost her unborn child.”

According to the former chef, she informed her supervisors of the miscarriage and medical emergency and, in the following days, was “falsely accused of leaving the kitchen and refrigerator in disarray following the Palm Springs event,” the lawsuit states.

The court documents claim that the former chef suffered severe hemorrhaging again on Feb. 8 and collapsed in her bathroom. The filing states that after the miscarriage she suffered severe depression and emotional distress, and claims that a supervisor reprimanded her, saying, “Stop it, just stop it. You are upsetting Kylie. You are making her depressed.”

“Celebrity status does not exempt anyone from California’s employment laws. We look forward to presenting the evidence in court and allowing the facts to speak for themselves,” attorney Della Shaker told The Times.

The former chef is seeking an unspecified amount of damages and claims that in addition to suffering accommodation failures, pregnancy discrimination and harassment, she was misclassified as an independent contractor, did not get paid on time or for the appropriate hours she worked, and was wrongfully terminated.

After being let go, the former chef claims that she sent a formal written complaint to co-defendant Tri Star detailing the alleged discrimination, harassment and wage theft. The lawsuit states that on May 22, 2025, the management team sent her an email offering a settlement and release agreement (essentially offering her money to sign away her right to sue).

The legal filing follows two lawsuits brought by former housekeepers of the embattled reality star. Less than two weeks after one woman on Jenner’s cleaning staff sued her, claiming her co-workers harassed and discriminated against her, another housekeeper came forward with allegations claiming the “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” star didn’t intervene while she suffered abuse from fellow staff, despite the housekeeper slipping the reality star a letter pleading for help.

Shaker also represents Angelica Hernandez Vasquez, who filed the suit against Jenner on April 17, and Juana Delgado Soto, who filed her lawsuit on April 29.