Ukraine's PM Is Out. Whether She Jumped or Was Pushed Depends on Your Wire Service.

As of Sunday, Yulia Svyrydenko is no longer Ukraine's prime minister. That one sentence is the entire factual core of the story — and roughly the last thing the world's newsrooms agree on.

Reuters: "Ukraine's Zelenskiy dismisses Prime Minister Svyrydenko after only a year." Dismisses. That's a firing. Zelenskyy holds the axe, she carries the box with the desk plant, and "after only a year" hangs off the end like a bad performance review.

AP: "Ukraine's prime minister steps down as Zelenskyy announces government reshuffle." Steps down! Her idea now. By AP's first paragraph, Zelenskyy has "offered a new and important position to the former premier" — less an axe, more a promotion with a bow on it.

Al Jazeera: "Ukraine's Zelenskyy announces cabinet reshuffle, replaces PM Svyrydenko." In this one she's barely a person — she's a component. You replace a dishwasher.

The best part: Reuters' own article can't quite keep up with its own headline. Its first line says Zelenskyy "planned to replace" her, "triggering the resignation of the government" — so inside the story she resigns, but up in the headline she's dismissed. Somewhere between paragraph one and the big font, the verb got a field promotion.

None of these are fake, that's what makes it fun. Power really moved, she really is out, and there really is a new job floating around — one opposition lawmaker told Reuters she's likely headed to Washington as ambassador. But "dismissed," "steps down" and "replaces" are three different physics of the same event: who pushed, who jumped, who was furniture. You didn't read three stories today. You read one story wearing three verbs.