Ukraine appoints new interior minister, security service chief

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) – Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday confirmed the appointment of Ihor Klymenko as the country’s new interior minister.

Lawmakers in the Verkhovna Rada also approved Vasyl Malyuk as the new head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

A total of 321 deputies voted in support of Klymenko’s appointment, while Malyuk was made the new SBU chief with 324 votes in favor, Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said in a Telegram post.

Klymenko was serving as the acting interior minister since Jan. 18, when his predecessor Denys Monastyrskyi was killed in a helicopter crash in the Kyiv region.

Monastyrskyi’s deputy Yevhen Yenin and Yurii Lubkovych, the state secretary for the Interior Ministry, were also among the 17 crash vicitims.

Klymenko previously headed Ukraine’s National Police.

Malyuk was serving as the acting SBU head since last June, when President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired Ivan Bakanov as the agency’s chief.

Separately, the parliament also extended martial law and general mobilization in Ukraine for 90 days.

Zelenskyy first imposed martial law in the country on Feb. 24 last year, the day Russia launched what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.