Khmara to leave military if appointed defense minister
Yevhenii Khmara may resign from military service to become Defense Minister, Ukrainska Pravda reported on Aug. 18, citing sources.
Ukrainian politician Yevhenii Khmara may resign from his active military role to assume the position of Defense Minister, according to Ukrainska Pravda. The news outlet reported this on August 18, based on anonymous sources. It is believed that Khmara will hold civilian status when the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, votes on his appointment.
Khmara, who is currently an active-duty general, had not originally intended to leave the military. However, sources revealed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy eventually convinced him to accept the change. Officials also contemplated an alternative option: altering the law to permit an active-duty officer to serve as defense minister without relinquishing their military position.
In an attempt to push for this alternative, political figure David Arakhamia, head of the ruling Servant of the People party, introduced a corresponding amendment last week. However, the effort ultimately failed, as reported by a person familiar with the matter to Ukrainska Pravda. On August 18, President Zelenskyy submitted the nominations for Khmara to serve as defense minister and Andrii Sybiha to be foreign minister to the Verkhovna Rada.
According to lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak, the parliament may confirm both nominations as soon as August 19.
Written by urgent.news from New Voice of Ukraine's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
