Ukraine’s parliament fills three vacant Cabinet positions

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine appointed on May 20 Viktor
Lyashko as health minister (with 262 votes, out of 226 votes needed), Oleksandr
Kubrakov as infrastructure minister (284 votes) and Oleksiy Lyubchenko as
economy minister and first deputy PM (293 votes).

Recall, the Rada dismissed
the economy and infrastructure ministers on their request, and dismissed the
health minister on the request of the PM on May 18.

James Hydzik: As the
three replacement candidates were selected by the presidential office and
presented by the leaders of the parliamentary majority already last week, there
were no surprises in the Rada’s voting.

In general, we see the replacements are good, at least
from the reputational standpoint. However, the replacements won’t change
anything in the policy of Shmyhal’s Cabinet as it will become even more
dependent on the presidential office.

Lyashko is very familiar with the government’s
pandemic response from his time as chief sanitary officer. His statement about
making unpopular decisions is an attempt to set himself apart from now-former
minister Maksym Stepanov, who was often criticized for what could be called an
over-reliance on soft measures. Lyashko still needs to prove himself as
decisive if and when the highly probable fourth wave of the pandemic emerges.
Also, Lyashko will have to better organize the COVID-19 vaccination process and
secure the better availability of the vaccines – a  task that is definitely
not in full correspondence with his profile as a good doctor.

Lyubchenko looks like a good technocrat who is
familiar with the way government works (unlike his predecessor who came from
business), so he definitely will be a more efficient economy minister.

Kubrakov earned his reputation as the leader of a
massive road repairs project in 2020-2021, which is one of the most remarkable
achievements of Zelensky’s presidency. However, his ability to run the entire
infrastructure sector of Ukraine is not clear now.