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Ukrainian parliament approves new cabinet

Xinhua, April 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

The Ukrainian parliament approved the formation of a new cabinet on Thursday following a replacement of the prime minister.

The 23-seat cabinet led by new Premier Volodymyr Groysman won the support of 239 lawmakers out of 367 present in the assembly, the parliament said in a statement posted on its website.

All the members of the new cabinet are representatives of two major parliamentary forces -- the People's Front party of former Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk and the Solidarity party of President Petro Poroshenko.

Unlike the previous government, the current one does not include either technocratic ministers or foreign-born reformists.

Six ministers in the new cabinet retain posts they have held since late 2014, namely Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, Information Policy Minister Yury Stets, Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko and Sports Minister Yury Zhdanov.

The two Deputy Prime Ministers, namely Viacheslav Kyrylenko and Gennady Zubko, also maintained their positions in the government.

A major change to the cabinet is the introduction of a new ministry, which will be responsible for solving problems of internally displaced persons and dealing with issues on areas that slip beyond Kiev control.

The new ministry will be chaired by Vadym Chernysh, a former head of the state agency for dealing with the situation in eastern Ukraine.

The previous Ukrainian government was dissolved earlier in the day after parliament accepted resignation of Yatsenyuk. Endit