Ukraine sacks two senior ministers at heart of wartime economy
Ukraine's parliament voted on Thursday to sack the deputy prime minister for infrastructure and the farm minister, removing two senior officials who have held key portfolios for the wartime economy, Reuters reports.
A majority of 272 lawmakers voted to dismiss Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, who oversaw the reconstruction programme and championed efforts to set up a Black Sea shipping lane during a de-facto Russian blockade.
The exit of the 41-year-old comes amid plans to break up his powerful ministry into two separate portfolios, lawmakers said.
"We expect the government will make a decision to separate the ministries. Then later in the second half of May, the new appointments will be made," Yevhenia Kravchuk, a lawmaker from the ruling Servants of the People party, said on national television.
Kubrakov said on Facebook that his dismissal had not been discussed with him in advance and that he had not been given a chance to defend his tenure in a presentation to parliament.
