Kyiv, Sep 6 (IANS) The Ukrainian parliament has voted to appoint Andriy Tsibiha as the country’s new foreign minister, replacing Dmytro Kuleba, lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko said.
Honcharenko said on Telegram on Thursday that Sibiha had secured the support of 258 of the 315 lawmakers present. Earlier on Thursday, parliament voted to dismiss Kuleba, who tendered his resignation on Wednesday, reports Xinhua news agency.
Tsibiha, 49, previously served as deputy head of the presidential office and became Kuleba’s deputy in April. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the reshuffle, coming at a crucial juncture in the war with Russia, is a sign the country needs “new energy.”
Sibiha, a former diplomat who worked for years in Zelensky’s office, is one of eight new ministers to be appointed on Thursday. Critics have said the reshuffle is an attempt to hold on to power by a small group of Zelensky loyalists allied with presidential office chief Andriy Yermak.
Sibiha, a former ambassador to Türkiye, also served as Yermak’s deputy.
Along with this, Alexander Kamyshin, a popular figure who kept Ukraine’s railways running during the war, is also being transferred from the Ministry of Strategic Industries to the President’s Office.
Many questions have been raised about the large-scale reshuffle amid Russian attacks on Ukraine. These appointments have been made when Zelensky is preparing to visit the US later this month.
Zelensky has repeatedly called on allies to lift sanctions that restrict Kiev from using Western weapons for long-range strikes into Russia.
Russian forces are advancing in the east and have stepped up their campaign of missile and drone attacks on Kiev and other Ukrainian cities away from the front line. There are allegations of almost daily attacks by Russia on the power sector and other infrastructure.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Ukraine’s incursion into the Russian region of Kursk had failed but that Ukraine’s front lines had proved weak.
Russia’s claim was countered by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who told reporters in Oslo that Ukraine had achieved a lot in its Kursk offensive.
Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok that Russian forces were gradually pushing Ukrainian troops out of Kursk, where on August 6 Ukraine launched the biggest foreign invasion of Russia since World War II.
—IANS
SM/KR
