Rada goes on recess until August 18 without appointing defence minister. Alternative to Klymenko being sought – Zhelezniak
A new defence minister, foreign minister, and head of the Security Service of Ukraine will not be appointed until the next parliamentary sitting, which is not scheduled to take place until August 18.
MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak reported this, Censor.NET informs.
Rada adjourns
"As expected, there will be no meeting of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction regarding the defence minister. More precisely, there was one that lasted a couple of minutes, during which they said they were looking for a candidate other than Klymenko for the Defence Ministry post (but not Fedorov either). They said something might happen at 9 p.m. (although I think that is another tall tale), or otherwise in August... August 18, just so you understand. That is the situation: no foreign minister, no defence minister, no head of the SBU, no head of the Foreign Intelligence Service... This is definitely how we will win," he wrote.
Fedorov has been "fully dismissed" and is no longer performing the duties of defence minister, the MP added.
Zhelezniak later added that there would be no plenary sitting tomorrow, July 17. The next one will take place on August 18.
Background
- On 14 July, the Verkhovna Rada approved a resolution on the resignation of Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko. The entire Cabinet of Ministers automatically resigned with her.
- On 15 July, Mykhailo Fedorov announced that he was stepping down as head of the Ministry of Defence.
- Before that, several media outlets and MPs reported that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wanted to replace him with Ihor Klymenko, the incumbent interior minister.
- Rallies in support of Mykhailo Fedorov were held in Dnipro, Rivne, Zaporizhzhia, Lutsk, Cherkasy and other cities. Participants are protesting against his dismissal.
