KIEV, March 4. /TASS/. Ukraine’s parliament, Verkhovna Rada, approved Denis Shmygal as the country’s new prime minister on Wednesday.

The decision passed with a vote of 291 in favor, well beyond the 226 votes required.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky nominated Shmygal as new prime minister after the parliament had approved resignation of Alexey Goncharuk.

In his speech to lawmakers, Shmygal said that his cabinet’s policy would not change. Among his priorities are the end to conflict in Donbass, the return of lost territories (including Crimea), the decentralization reform, the favorable investment climate, the improvement of healthcare and education, higher energy efficiency, and infrastructure development.

In general, he said that "everything that was announced by [Ukraine’s] President [Vladimir Zelensky] on August 29, 2019 when the former government was appointed, but has not been completed" would be prioritized.

Denis Shmygal was born in Lvov in 1975. He had been doing business until 2009, when he started his career in public service. He worked as an aide to Lvov’s regional governor and headed the Lvov regional administration’s economic department. In 2014, he served as deputy head of the regional tax service department. In January 2018, Shmygal took on the post of Director of Burshtyn thermal power plant in Ivano-Frankovsk Region, the region’s largest power producer owned by Ukrainian tycoon Rinat Akhmetov. On August 1, 2019, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky appointed Shmygal as Governor of the Ivano-Frankovsk Region. On February 4, 2020, he was appointed deputy prime minister and the minister for community and territory development.