Appointments by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine

At its plenary session on 16 July 2026, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine:

1. Appointed Serhii Fedorovych Koretskyi as Prime Minister of Ukraine.

Voting results: 289 in favour, 1 against, 7 abstentions and 21 members not voting.

Mr. Koretskyi became the twentieth Prime Minister of independent Ukraine.

Prior to his appointment, he had served as Chairman of the Management Board of Naftogaz of Ukraine since 14 May 2025. Before that, from 9 November 2022 to 13 May 2025, he simultaneously served as Chief Executive Officer of PJSC Ukrnafta and JSC Ukrtatnafta.

2. Approved the new composition of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine:

• – Denys Shmyhal – First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Energy;
• – Tetiana Berezhna – Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture;
• – Vsevolod Chentsov – Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration;
• – Vitalii Bezhin – Minister for Communities, Territories and Internally Displaced Persons;
• – Matvii Bidnyi – Minister of Youth and Sports;
• – Andrii Butenko – Minister of Education and Science;
• – Ivan Vyhivskyi – Minister of Internal Affairs;
• – Taras Vysotskyi – Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food;
• – Mykola Kalashnyk – Minister for Recovery, Infrastructure and Transport;
• – Vitalii Kim – Minister for Veterans Affairs;
• – Oleksandr Kravchenko – Minister of Economy and Environment;
• – Viktor Liashko – Minister of Health;
• – Serhii Marchenko – Minister of Finance;
• – Denys Maslov – Minister of Justice;
• – Denys Uliutin – Minister of Social Policy, Family and Unity;
• – Oksana Ferchuk – Minister of Digital Transformation.

The appointments were approved in a single package vote.

Voting results: 264 in favour, 15 against, 19 abstentions and 20 members not voting.

No vote was held that day on the appointments of the Minister of Defence and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Voting on these nominations is expected after the Verkhovna Rada receives the relevant submissions from the President of Ukraine.

However, the next plenary sitting of Parliament is not scheduled until 18 August 2026.

As a result, consideration of these key appointments has effectively been postponed for almost a month. Consequently, a country at war will remain without a formally appointed Minister of Defence for nearly one month.

As Member of Parliament Yaroslav Zhelezniak (Holos political party) commented: “This is the situation: there is no Minister of Foreign Affairs, no Minister of Defence, no Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, and no Head of the Foreign Intelligence Service.”

It is noteworthy that Taras Vysotskyi was appointed to lead a ministry that had not yet been formally established. This appears to reflect a new approach whereby a ministry is created for a designated minister rather than a minister being appointed to an already existing ministry.

For reference, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food was established by Presidential Decree No. 1085/2010 of 9 December 2010 through the reorganization of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy. It was reinstated by Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 1344 of 28 December 2020 and subsequently abolished by Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 903 of 21 July 2025, with its functions transferred to the newly established Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture.

Everything eventually comes full circle in Ukraine. This explains why central executive authorities are repeatedly renamed and reorganized, while, regrettably, no one is held accountable for these recurring institutional changes.

Photo source: https://www.magnific.com/