On July 16, the Verkhovna Rada approved the new composition of the Cabinet of Ministers and Resolution No. 963, which redrew the map of central government bodies. Seven ministries changed their names or functions. However, two decisions stand out from the rest — and each has concrete numerical basis.
250 Billion Reasons to Restore the Ministry of Agriculture
A year ago, in July 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers liquidated the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, absorbing it into the newly created Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture. Now that decision has been reversed: the ministry has been restored, and is headed by Taras Vysotskyi — the same deputy minister who as recently as June spoke at the London conference of the International Grain Council, announcing grain targets for the 2025/26 marketing year.
"Our task is to create more value within the country. We already have strong examples: sunflower oil and meal, where Ukraine maintains strong positions"
Taras Vysotskyi, speech at IGC Grains Conference 2026, London, June 2025
Context is important: according to Vysotskyi's own assessment, approximately 250 billion hryvnias per year will be distributed through the restored Ministry of Agriculture — funding from the state budget plus resources from the European Commission and other donors. The concentration of such flows in a single ministry is an argument in favor of specialization, but at the same time a risk: oversight agencies for spending are not mentioned in Resolution No. 963.
In parallel, the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture has been renamed the Ministry of Economy and Environment and placed under the leadership of Oleksandr Kravchenko. Thus "agriculture" has disappeared from the name — along with the corresponding block of powers.
4.6 Million People and First Place on the Sign
The second decision is both structural and symbolic. The Ministry of Development of Communities and Territories has been divided into two: the Ministry of Restoration, Infrastructure and Transport (Mykola Kalashnik) and the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Internally Displaced Persons, headed by Servant of the People parliamentarian Vitalii Bezhin, former chair of the relevant Verkhovna Rada committee.
According to data from the Ministry of Social Policy, as of December 2025, Ukraine has registered 4.62 million IDPs — more than 2.76 million women and 1.86 million men, 837,000 children. Previously, issues regarding displaced persons were scattered among the Ministry of Social Policy, the Ministry for Reintegration, and the Ministry of Regional Development. Now, at least formally, there is a single address.
A symbolic detail: this is the first instance when the abbreviation "IDP" appeared directly in the official name of a ministry — more than three years after the start of the full-scale invasion.
The reorganization also affected other departments:
- The Ministry of Social Policy consolidated the liquidated Ministry of National Unity and was renamed the Ministry of Social Policy, Family and Unity.
- The Ministry of Education is now headed by Andrii Butenko instead of Oksenii Lisovyi.
- The Ministry of Internal Affairs — Ivan Vygavskyi.
- The Ministry of Digital Transformation — Oksana Ferchuk; the Ministry of Justice — Denys Maslov.
Reorganization or Restart?
Structural separation is a necessary but insufficient condition. The Ministry of Agriculture has been restored without a clearly defined mechanism for oversight of the 250-billion-hryvnia budget. The Ministry for Communities, Territories and IDPs received a name — but has not yet announced either a strategy for integrating displaced persons or the criteria by which its work will be measured. The previous Strategy on Internal Displacement until 2024, by the admission of its own developers, lost relevance after February 24, 2022, and was never fully replaced.
If within six months the Ministry for Communities, Territories and IDPs does not adopt an updated strategy with measurable indicators — the reorganization will remain largely administrative rebranding rather than a response to the needs of 4.6 million people.
