The Verkhovna Rada has appointed Denys Shmyhal as the minister for development of communities and territories of Ukraine, with 278 lawmakers voting in favor of the decision.
“He is an excellent manager,” Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk reportedly said in parliament before the vote.
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Since August 2019, Shmyhal has been the governor of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, located over 450 kilometers to the west of Kyiv.
Shmyhal is also the former director of Burshtyn TES, a coal-fired plant located in western Ukraine belonging to the controversial oligarch Rinat Akhmetov.
His appointment as minister follows the Jan. 16 resignation of Aliona Babak.
According to Ukrainian protocol, Babak was dismissed by the Verkhovna Rada at her own will.
On Feb. 4, some 266 members of parliament voted in favor of that decision.
However, during her resignation speech in the Verkhovna Rada, Babak accused the “construction mafia” of involvement in her resignation, without specifying whom she was accusing. She also maintained that she was leaving at “her own free will” and the decision was made “without pressure.”
A specialist in price regulation and promoting competition in housing and utility markets, Babak also advocated for the development of hromadas — territorial communes — and decentralization.
Babak was formerly a member of the parliamentary faction Samopomich in the previous convocation of the Rada, as well as deputy chairman of the committee on construction, urban planning, housing, and communal services.
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