UPDATE 2 - Ukraine's parliament approves Andrii Sybiha as new foreign minister

UPDATES WITH INFORMATION ON MORE APPOINTMENTS, REVISES DECK

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Ukraine's parliament on Thursday voted to approve the nomination of Andrii Sybiha as the country's new foreign minister, one of many moves in the largest government reshuffle since the Russia-Ukraine war began some 30 months ago.

Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on Telegram that 258 parliamentarians voted to support Sybiha's nomination for the position.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted a draft bill to the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, to appoint Sybiha, soon after the parliament voted to approve the resignation of Dmytro Kuleba, who had held the post since 2020.

Sybiha, his successor, served as the first deputy foreign minister since vacating the post of deputy head of Ukraine's presidential office, which he held between 2021 and 2024.

Before that, Sybiha served as Ukraine's ambassador to Türkiye in 2016-2021, a key post even before the start of the current war in February 2022.

Türkiye has long worked to make peace between Russia and Ukraine, especially given its strong ties with both countries and has also served as a vocal advocate of the nation’s ethnic Turkic Tatars, who have suffered greatly since 2014, when Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and the port city of Sevastopol.

- Government reshuffle

On the same day, the Verkhovna Rada also voted to approve the heads of eight other ministries.

Among them include the Youth and Sports Ministry, where Matvii Bidnyi was appointed as minister after serving as its acting head since last November.

While she resigned from her post as Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Olha Stefanishyna was appointed again to the same post, as well as given the post of Justice Minister.

Meanwhile, Oleksii Kuleba, who previously served as the deputy head of Ukraine's presidential office, was voted as deputy prime minister for the restoration of Ukraine and minister for the development of communities and territories.

Svitlana Grynchuk was appointed as environmental protection and natural resources minister, while Mykola Tochytskyi was made Ukraine's culture and information policy minister.

The other appointees were Natalia Kalmykova, who will take charge of the Veterans Affairs Ministry, Herman Smetanin, who will take the office of the Strategic Industries Ministry, and Vitaliy Koval who will be the agricultural minister.

On Tuesday, Ruslan Stefanchuk, the parliament speaker, said he had received resignation letters from multiple Ukrainian Cabinet ministers for reasons that have yet to be determined, but with the winds reportedly blowing for major changes in government.

A day later, Stefanchuk also declared that he got Kuleba’s resignation letter.