Parliament approves Stefanyshyna, Tkachenko as ministers

Ukraine’s parliament approved on June 4 the cabinet’s
nomination yesterday of Olha Stefanyshyna as deputy prime minister for European
and Euro-Atlantic integration, and Oleksandr Tkachenko as culture and
information policy minister. To clear the post for Stefanyshyna, parliament
voted at the same session to dismiss its current holder, career diplomat Vadym
Prystaiko, who could be nominated as Ukraine’s next ambassador to Great
Britain, the pravda.com.ua news site reported this week. Parliament could still
approve today the cabinet’s nomination of Roman Abramovskiy as environmental
protection minister.

Stefanyshyna, an MP with the
neoliberal Voice faction, served on the parliamentary healthcare committee
after building a career in medical procurement. She served as deputy health
minister in 2018-2019, working alongside the U.S.-born then-minister Ulana
Suprun. Tkachenko, an MP with The People’s Servant party, is a veteran
television executive, having served as general director of the 1+1 group of
companies between 2008 and 2019.

The Russian-born Abramovskiy built his career in
Ukraine as an executive at metallurgical companies before serving as deputy
director of the Kyiv commercial real estate developer, Riola Construction
Group, in 2012-2015. He served as deputy minister for regional development,
construction and maintenance in February-September 2015. He was appointed
deputy minister of energy and environmental protection in October. With his
appointment, an environmental protection ministry will emerge, separate from
the energy ministry.

Zenon Zawada:
Stefanyshyna’s background in healthcare likely influenced her nomination as
Ukraine is expecting to receive much assistance and requirements from Western
institutions in coping with the coronavirus. Meanwhile, we believe Abramovskiy’s
nomination is strictly political given the utterly counterproductive move of
nominating a real estate developer to lead a renewed environmental protection
ministry. Even Shmyhal said he wanted someone with experience in ecology,
yet this nomination flies in the face of that.

Tkachenko had been the president’s choice last year to
replace Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, an effort led by Andriy Bohdan that Zelensky eventually decided to abandon
(along with Bohdan). Polls have shown that Tkachenko doesn’t have enough support to defeat Klitschko
in October’s local elections. Tkachenko’s appointment confirms that President
Zelensky is still trying to accommodate Kolomoisky in those areas where it’s
possible, given that Tkachenko is among the magnate’s closest advisers after
directing his media assets for more than a decade. So Kolomoisky and Rinat
Akhmetov remain Ukraine’s most influential magnates.