Verkhovna Rada to vote on Khmara and Sybiha tomorrow, most MPs will support them – Zhelezniak
The Verkhovna Rada will consider the president’s nominations of Yevhen Khmara as defense minister and Andrii Sybiha as foreign minister tomorrow, August 19.
MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak said this in an interview with Censor.NET.
Verkhovna Rada vote on August 19
On August 18, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted nominations to the Verkhovna Rada to appoint Yevhen Khmara as defense minister and Andrii Sybiha as foreign minister. According to MP Zhelezniak, the parliamentary majority will support both appointments tomorrow.
"Most of my colleagues are satisfied. There are people who do not care — and they are the majority. There are people who believe this is the president’s quota and therefore his choice. There are people like me who believe the dismissal occurred without explanation," Zhelezniak said.
The MP himself said that he would not vote for Khmara’s appointment because he had received no explanation for the replacement of the previous defense minister.
Khmara left military service
Zhelezniak separately commented on the requirement that, under the law, the defense minister must be a civilian, while General Khmara had until recently held a military rank.
"I think that he is already a civilian as of now... We were informed that he is not a serviceman," the MP said, adding that he did not know the details of the procedure.
Sybiha and Poklad
Regarding Sybiha’s candidacy for foreign minister, the MP said he expected no surprises in the vote, as there would be enough votes.
At the same time, according to Zhelezniak, there is no presidential nomination to appoint Oleksandr Poklad as head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), meaning that he will remain acting head. "It seems to me that the answer lies in the fact that it is very convenient for Zelenskyy to be able to replace a person at any moment," the MP explained.
He also noted that the nominations of Khmara and Sybiha were submitted on the evening before the vote so that MPs would have no time to respond to them.
"They will submit them, vote for these two — and that will be it. They will call it a great victory, because otherwise Putin will attack again. The standard story. The problem with our entire ‘series,’ it seems to me, is that, like the final episodes of melodramas, it has begun repeating itself," Zhelezniak added.
Cabinet of Ministers reshuffle, Fedorov’s resignation and new Commander-in-Chief
- On July 14, the Verkhovna Rada supported a resolution on the resignation of Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko. The entire Cabinet of Ministers automatically resigned with her.
- On July 15, Mykhailo Fedorov said that he was stepping down as head of the Defence Ministry.
- Rallies in support of Mykhailo Fedorov took place in Dnipro, Rivne, Zaporizhzhia, Lutsk, Cherkasy and other cities. Protesters are demonstrating against his resignation.
- On July 16, the Verkhovna Rada voted to appoint the new Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Serhii Koretskyi was appointed Prime Minister.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he would nominate Yevhen Khmara for the post of Minister of Defence of Ukraine. Prior to this, he had instructed Khmara to act as head of the Ministry of Defence.
- Protests against Fedorov’s dismissal continued in Ukrainian cities. In addition to demanding that Fedorov be reinstated as Defence Minister, people called for the dismissal of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi.
- On 21 July, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Oleksandr Syrskyi from his post as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He appointed General Mykhailo Drapatyi to the post instead.
- On August 18, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted nominations to the Verkhovna Rada for the posts of defense minister and foreign minister.
