The prime minister of Ukraine, Oleksiy Honcharuk, has had his offer of resignation rejected by President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has decided to give him a second chance. 

Honchharuk submitted his resignation following a leaked recording in which he can be heard describing Zelensky's understanding of Ukraine's economy as "primitive."

The recording was released earlier this week and followed an informal meeting between the prime minister and members of the National Bank. They reportedly discussed how to explain the economy to the president, who was a comedian before he was elected to office and had no prior political experience. 

Following a meeting of Ukraine's parliament to discuss the matter, Zelensky issued a video statement saying: "I decided to give you and your government a chance, if you resolve some issues that are very important today and are of concern to our society."

He went on to say: "Now is not the time to shake the country economically and politically," before confirming he wants an investigation into the leaked recording.

"I demand that within two weeks, as soon as possible, we should get the information on who was recording," he said. Adding that law enforcement agencies should "find who did it and work it all out."

Honcharuk posted on Facebook after he submitted his resignation letter: "I came to the position of fulfilling the program of the president. He is for me a model of openness and decency… However, in order to take away 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 that the audio leaked on 16 January "artificially created an impression that my team and I do not respect the president."