Major General Evgheni Hmara, who previously served in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), has been appointed as interim defense minister by President Volodymyr Zelensky. He will have the mandate to continue the reform in the military field, said the leader from Kiev, reports IPN.<\/p>\n\n
Evgheni Hmara took over as interim head of the SBU from January 5, after the former leader of the institution, Vasili Maliuk, resigned. Previously, Hmara led the “Alfa” Special Operations Center within the SBU. His appointment as head of the Ministry of Defense comes after the former minister, Mihailo Fedorov, was dismissed by the president, amid a conflict with the army’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr S\u00eerski. Shortly after, the deputy head of Ukraine’s air forces also announced his resignation.<\/p>\n\n
The dismissal of Fedorov by the president sparked a wave of protests on Thursday, July 16, in several cities across the country, where participants expressed their support for him. In the meantime, Mihailo Fedorov revealed, during a press conference, the existence of a conflict with Oleksandr Syrski, whom he accused of blocking the ministry’s initiatives. He also stated that he was offered the position of presidential advisor, but he refused it.<\/p>\n\n
The governmental reshuffles in Kiev come after the former Prime Minister Iulia Sviridenko resigned, and shortly after, the Parliament voted for Sergei Koretski to head the executive, also approving the list of new ministers. The exceptions are the ministers of defense and foreign affairs, whose candidacies are proposed by the president of the country. In the meantime, the Supreme Rada has entered the parliamentary vacation and will resume its activity on August 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Major General Evgheni Hmara, who previously served in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), has been appointed as interim defense minister by President Volodymyr Zelensky. He will have the mandate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":510867,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[137],"tags":[19320,43145,26640,16528,21605,43146,1304,497,2841],"class_list":["post-510883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-dismissal-en","tag-evgheni-hmara","tag-mihailo-fedorov-en","tag-minister","tag-minister-of-defense-en","tag-overhaul","tag-protests","tag-ukraine","tag-volodimir-zelenski-en"],"yoast_head":"\n