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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
On the basis of submissions from President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Verkhovna Rada appointed Andrii Sybiga as minister of foreign affairs and Yevhenii Khmara as minister of defense.
After the government reshuffle, only these two key ministries lacked full ministers. The president did not submit nominations for Sybiga and Major General and counterintelligence officer Khmara for over a month, while protests with placards demanding the return of Mykhailo Fedorov to the defense ministry took place in major cities.
However, LB.ua’s interlocutors in Servant of the People insisted that “there was no delay by the president” in submitting the nominations. That pause “definitely was not related to the protests.” Simply put, “the Rada just wasn’t sitting in plenary session during that time. Plus Khmara was not a civilian, which is required by the Law ‘On National Security’,” the deputies said.
Eventually, before the vote Yevhenii Khmara was indeed discharged from military service. He and Sybiga held consultations with all factions and groups. A small rally near Mariinsky Park did not prevent the ministers’ appointments, and Khmara was voted in by a constitutional majority of 312 votes.
How the Rada appointed two ministers under the president’s quota and what the new officials promised — in the LB.ua report.
Meetings of factions and groups with the candidates. “Khmara wants to keep the Ministry of Defense team”
On 18 August, President Volodymyr Zelensky submitted to the Verkhovna Rada the nomination of Yevhenii Khmara for minister of defense and Andrii Sybiga for minister of foreign affairs. After that, the candidates held meetings with factions and groups.
Consultations with the so-called opposition continued until late Tuesday evening. First and foremost with the groups Revival of Ukraine, For Life and Peace — remnants of the banned pro-Russian OPZZH. Then with For the Future, Trust, the European Solidarity faction, Holos, the Reasonable Politics group, and the Batkivshchyna faction.
One obstacle to appointing Yevhenii Khmara as minister of defense was that he was a military officer, while part of 15 of the Law of Ukraine “On National Security of Ukraine” stipulates that “the minister of defense of Ukraine shall be appointed by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine upon the submission of the President of Ukraine from among civilians.”
But by the day of the vote that obstacle had been removed. First Deputy Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Tax and Customs Policy Yaroslav Zhelezniak (Holos), after a meeting, reported that “in response to my question Khmara confirmed that before the vote on his candidacy for minister of defense he will already be a civilian. His discharge from military service is taking place in accordance with Article 26 of the Law ‘On Military Duty and Military Service,’ namely due to ‘organizational measures for senior officer personnel.’ He confirmed that all the necessary documents have already been signed. So as of now he is a serviceman, but that will change very soon.”
In addition, according to Zhelezniak, they “effectively confirmed” the dismissal of Arsen Zhumadilov from the position of head of the Defense Procurement Agency. Khmara also stated his intention to preserve as much as possible the Ministry of Defense team that worked under Mykhailo Fedorov.
Already on the morning of 19 August, before the plenary session, the candidates met with the Servant of the People faction. And faction leader Davyd Arahamia officially announced that deputies support the president’s decision. Because “Andrii Sybiga is an experienced diplomat, a powerful team member whom we all know well… it is important to continue the work he has led for a long time,” and “Yevhenii Khmara is a combat officer who has repeatedly risked his life for Ukraine… Khmara advocates preserving positive achievements and people who have proven themselves in the Ministry of Defense.”
LB.ua sources confirmed that Khmara wants to keep the core of the Ministry of Defense team. “We’re talking, first of all, about First Deputy Defense Minister Oleksii Vyskub and Deputy Minister Mstyslav Banik (former deputy minister of digital transformation responsible for developing the Diia services, Army+ and Reserve+ — Ed.), who oversee the reform of defense procurement,” our interlocutor said.
Khmara also told deputies that he “is on the same side” as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Mykhailo Drapaty. His priorities include raising monetary provisions, reforming the Territorial Center for Coordination (TCC), and continuing strikes on enemy rear areas.
Political accompaniment of the process
This morning, while the ministerial candidates were meeting with deputies, a rally was taking place near the parliament, small compared with previous actions by supporters of the former defense minister. Its participants demanded Fedorov’s return and held placards reading “Vote against Khmara.”
Rally against Khmara’s appointment outside the Verkhovna Rada
The night before, Fedorov released an evening video address about a crisis of governance, corruption and the need for elections even during the war. Although this is explicitly prohibited by the Constitution and the law on martial law. This statement by the former ally of Zelensky was received ambiguously not only by civic activists and media, but also by deputies themselves.
Iryna Friz (European Solidarity) called it “tactical probing of the question… I see the danger of these tambourine dances in that the enemy will definitely take advantage and escalate. Internal instability is a threat to our resilience in the war. Elections during war are impossible.”
Maryana Bezuhla, who returned to the Servant of the People faction but regularly attended protest rallies, also admitted she was surprised by Fedorov’s statement.
“Clearly, Mykhailo Albertovych held back for a long time to avoid becoming the opposition, but in the end he faced a choice: surrender or go into opposition… At the same time an active political process is very dangerous given the war,” Bezuhla wrote.
Rally against Khmara’s appointment outside the Verkhovna Rada
She reminded that Fedorov worked inside the system formed by Zelensky’s team for seven years, and now criticized it. “But if corruption was so visible, why only now? What if Zelensky hadn’t dismissed him? What if he had reinstated him?” she added.
Oleh Dunda (Servant of the People), a member of the Rada Committee on State Building, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning — the committee drafting the first post-war elections bill — called Fedorov’s call “creative.”
“The creative voting method is one of the pillars on which power in Moscow stands today. It is online voting, which allows any results to be fabricated. So — ‘you are on the right track, comrade.’ By the way, since the first day of this Rada’s term there have been constant attempts to push various online voting proposals through my committee. Now we know who initiated them,” he wrote.
Demand to summon Zelensky to the Rada and Sybiga’s promises
In the morning, before the Rada’s critical moment, the Committees on National Security, Defense and Intelligence and on Foreign Policy and Interparliamentary Cooperation recommended supporting the appointments of Khmara and Sybiga. Deputies had no doubts about the number of votes needed to appoint the ministers in the Rada. However, co-chair of the European Solidarity faction Iryna Herashchenko, speaking from the podium, said the president should personally come to parliament and present the candidates for minister of defense and minister of foreign affairs.
“Zelensky should be here today, the one who stirred up this personnel shuffle, who instead of dealing with mobilization and army issues shoots from a bow, then meets with bloggers,” she said.
This proposal was supported by deputy Yaroslav Zhelezniak, who said the president must personally explain to society and parliament why he dismisses some people and appoints others. They were countered by Rada Chair Ruslan Stefanchuk, citing the absence of a legislative requirement for the president to personally present candidates to parliament under his quota.
“There is no such requirement!” Stefanchuk snapped, stressing that the president’s presence in parliament during personnel matters is only a “tradition.” He recalled that in 2014 year Pavlo Klimkin was appointed minister of foreign affairs in the absence of the president in the session hall.
After that, the president’s representative in the Rada Halyna Mykhailiuk presented Andrii Sybiga’s candidacy.
“Nothing is more important than ending the war,” Sybiga said in his speech. He recalled that over the past year Ukraine preserved international support, unlocked 90 billion euros of aid from the EU, increased pressure on Russia, created a special tribunal, and expanded diplomatic presence worldwide.
At the same time, he said, as long as the war continues, no efforts can be considered sufficient. Sybiga said that ending the war requires strength on the battlefield and at the negotiating table, and diplomacy is coming to the fore. This involves engaging the United States, an active role for Europe, pressure on Moscow and strengthening Ukraine: new packages of military support, a deterrence package, and scaling up defense industry.
“The most urgent is strengthening the air shield and protection against ballistic threats,” he said, adding that Ukraine has 11 coalitions, including the recently created anti-ballistic one, and that another geopolitical initiative — Carpathian — will be created in the autumn.
Sybiga named Ukraine’s accession to the EU as his second priority, emphasizing the goal of opening all clusters as quickly as possible. Integration into NATO he called an unchanging priority that is moving into a practical phase. Recall that this topic was recently vigorously discussed in society and the political sphere following a statement by ambassador and former commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
Separately, the minister reported agreements regarding food exports in the Black Sea, an area where Ukraine faces major problems. “We have already agreed with neighbors on transit. We are restoring routes of solidarity and seeking ways to protect freedom of navigation,” Sybiga said.
His third priority he identified as people — the global Ukrainian community, preserving ties and identity, and protecting the rights of Ukrainians abroad.
By the way, among general deputies’ questions the only one specifically about protecting Ukrainians abroad was voiced concretely. Yuliia Sirko (Holos) called, first, to appoint 40% of ambassadors who “are missing in important states like the United States, Greece, Lithuania, Poland and many others.”
Finally, 266 deputies voted to appoint Sybiga minister of foreign affairs (from all factions except European Solidarity).
Opposition threats and Khmara’s promises
Before considering the presentation of Yevhenii Khmara as a candidate for minister of defense, European Solidarity deputies asked for time to speak. Iryna Herashchenko together with Artur Herasymov read transcripts of Rada sessions where in 2014 year then-president Petro Poroshenko personally presented candidates under his quota. In response, Ruslan Stefanchuk noted that the transcripts “are not going anywhere,” and the presentations were formal and lasted a few minutes. After that Herasymov, gesticulating, again ran up to the podium demanding the right of reply.
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“Shouting won’t work!” the speaker warned, but still gave the floor. “Stick to procedure! Keep digging your own grave,” he could not contain himself.
The floor was taken by European Solidarity faction leader Petro Poroshenko, who emotionally stated that “the speaker lied,” and that he personally presented candidates for minister of defense and foreign affairs. Poroshenko demanded Zelensky’s presence in the chamber, threatening that “we will not allow the question to be considered.”
But then tensions eased and the president’s representative in parliament Halyna Mykhailiuk presented Khmara’s candidacy.
In his speech from the podium, the candidate for minister of defense said that Ukraine knows the enemy’s next steps, its mobilization plans, and its strategy for autumn and winter.
“We will do everything to defend Ukraine, reduce Russia’s military potential and force the enemy to a just peace. This is the task the supreme commander-in-chief set for all of us,” Khmara said.
He emphasized the importance of interaction between the president, parliament, government, the General Staff, the Ministry of Defense, combat units, manufacturers and partners. “The enemy can be forced to peace only by the strength of our army, our technological solutions, primarily constant updating and effective use of technologies. We have erased the distances,” he said.
According to Khmara, there are no safe zones left for objects that feed the Russian war. “For the first time in history we are striking even in Siberia. The Russian defense industry complex, military logistics, fuel infrastructure, the entire economic base of the enemy’s war — these are our targets,” Khmara said.
He defined three key, equally weighted priorities: the front and strengthening the forces, people, and development of the defense industry. Khmara explained that on the front it is about intercepting the strategic initiative in all domains of the war — on land, at sea, in the air and in the information space.
“The needs of the front must quickly reach the ministry, and the ministry’s decisions — the front. The military needs weapons — many, on time and those that produce results,” the candidate for minister of defense said. He added that procurement through transparent procedures and without excessive bureaucracy will work exclusively for the front and Ukraine’s defense, not for anyone’s private interests. Deputies accompanied this statement with applause.
Khmara singled out deep strikes and mid-range strikes (drone strikes into deep rear areas and at distances of several dozen or hundreds of kilometers — Ed.). “The operation in Novorossiysk and a number of successful strikes before that have shown the power of interaction between defense forces, manufacturers and state institutions. There will be more Ukrainian weapons, strikes will be more precise,” he promised.
Khmara also emphasized the unconditional value of soldiers’ lives and health. According to him, technologies are needed so that the Ukrainian defender has an advantage and the risk to a person is minimized: “A warrior is motivated when he feels respected, receives quality training and fair service rules.”
Khmara called the development of the defense industry the foundation of the state’s strength today and its security for years to come, “so our task is to develop it and increase production.”
Addressing the members of parliament, Khmara stressed that during the war the defense of the state is the key priority for the entire system of power. “And we have a joint struggle and responsibility to end the war,” Khmara summarized.
Following procedure, the floor moved to questions. Deputy Yuliia Yatsyk (independent, left the Servant of the People faction) reminded that the law requires the minister of defense to be a civilian. Khmara confirmed that he was discharged pursuant to Article 26 of the Law of Ukraine “On Military Duty and Military Service.”
Solomiia Bobrovska (Holos) asked when parliament would be presented with the position on new contracts for servicemembers promised by the previous minister Mykhailo Fedorov, as well as on reforming the TCC, mobilization and resolving the problem of unauthorized departure from units.
“And let’s establish a moratorium on changing the minister of defense to give the team at least a year to work… Half a year of tinkering with defense costs us all dearly. And it looks literally like sabotage,” the deputy said.
In response Khmara said: a comprehensive decision on mobilization must be adopted. The first and important component, he named, is the situation in the military — dignified treatment of soldiers, conditions of service and conduct of combat operations, methods of selection and recruitment, equipment, training, armament supply and recovery. According to him, execution of this task forms a mobilization plan that directly depends on the vision of the war. “It must be formed, it must be crystallized now,” Khmara said, adding that he is developing this plan together with the commander-in-chief and the General Staff. The report, he said, will be presented to the president of Ukraine.
Finally, 312 deputies voted to appoint Khmara minister of defense from all factions and groups. To applause he took the oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people.
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