The Verkhovna Rada dismissed Minister of Education and Science Serhiy Shkarlet, Minister of Strategic Industries Pavlo Ryabikin, and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhaylo Fedorov.
Later, a vote on the appointment of new heads of these ministries is planned, said MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak (Holos).
Mykhaylo Fedorov will take on a new position with broader responsibilities. He will be in charge of several other areas besides digitalization. His future position will be Vice Prime Minister for Innovation, Education, Science and Technology Development - Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.
A volunteer and director of the Small Academy of Sciences, Oksen Lisovyy, was recommended to be appointed as the next Minister of Education and Science; Oleksandr Kamyshyn, who was the chairman of the Ukrzaliznytsya board, was proposed as the Minister of Strategic Industries.
According to LB.ua's sources, Pavlo Ryabikian may become Ukraine's ambassador to China. The Ministry of Strategic Industry may be eliminated altogether.
295 MPs voted for Shkarlet's dismissal: 189 from Servants of the People, 21 from European Solidarity, 12 from Batkivshchyna, 16 from Platform for Life and Peace, eight from For the Future, 17 from Voice (Holos), 15 from Dovira, seven from Restoring Ukraine, and the rest were unaffiliated. There are 298 MPs in favour of dismissing Fedorov and 303 in favour of dismissing Ryabikin.
Voting for the appointments will take place in the coming days.
Shkarlet was appointed Minister of Education and Science with the minimum number of votes in December 2020. Before that, he had been serving as acting minister since June. Protests over Shkarlet began even before his appointment, due to a plagiarism scandal. In June 2020, when Shkarlet was only a candidate, a website for errors and falsification in scientific research published information about plagiarism in a monograph co-authored by the rector of Chernihiv National Technical University and candidate for Minister of Education Serhiy Shkarlet.