Ukraine’s MPs elect Honcharuk as new PM, appoint speaker & defense minister

Oleksiy Honcharuk, a 35-year-old lawyer, was appointed as Ukraine’s prime minister on Thursday. He was proposed by President Volodymyr Zelensky and received the support of 290 members of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s parliament).

“You all know our problems: the debts we have inherited, the ruined infrastructures and the war in the east,” Honcharuk told the legislators. “And we still have corruption. We remain unable to eliminate a situation where the one who rises to power hurries to lay hands on anything that comes his way,” TASS quoted him as saying.

Andriy Zahorodnyuk, a lawyer and activist, was appointed as the new defense minister.

The parliament elected Dmitry Razumkov as its speaker. Razumkov is the leader of the Servant of the People pro-presidential party.