Rada appoints Khmara as defense minister, Sybiha as head of Ukraine's Foreign Ministry

Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada has supported the appointment of Yevhen Khmara as defense minister and Andrii Sybiha as foreign minister.

This was reported by RBC-Ukraine.

Prior to this, Khmara headed the defense ministry as acting minister following the July reshuffle of the government.

The candidacies of Khmara and Sybiha were submitted to parliament a day earlier by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The president thanked the deputies for supporting the appointment of Andrii Sybiha as foreign minister and Yevhen Khmara as defense minister.

"The tasks for both ministers are absolutely clear: Ukraine needs more strength. And it will get it," Zelensky said.

Speaking in the Verkhovna Rada before the vote on his candidacy, Khmara named strengthening the front and promptly supplying the military with weapons as the key priorities of his work.

Among other priorities, he named carrying out long-range and medium-range strikes on Russian military and strategic facilities, developing Ukraine's defense-industrial complex, and increasing weapons production.

Speaking in the Verkhovna Rada before the vote on his candidacy for the post of foreign minister, Sybiha named ending the war as the main goal of Ukraine's diplomatic system.

He noted that Ukraine is at a decisive stage of the war, when the role of diplomacy takes on special significance. According to him, the country's foreign policy will be oriented toward maximum pragmatism and effectiveness.

Among the key priorities, he named achieving a just peace, advancing Ukraine along the path of integration into the EU and NATO, as well as strengthening ties with Ukrainians abroad.

As a reminder, on July 16 the Verkhovna Rada, on the proposal of newly appointed Prime Minister Serhii Koretskyi, approved the new composition of Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers, but the foreign minister and defense minister, who fall under the president's quota, were not appointed.