MOSCOW, July 16. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (parliament) has appointed Sergey Koretsky as the country’s prime minister, according to a live airing of the hearing.

A total of 289 lawmakers supported the decision, which required 226 votes for approval.

On July 14, the Verkhovna Rada dismissed Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko. Today’s prime minister vote took place amid widespread protests across Ukraine, sparked by Kiev’s decision not to retain Mikhail Fyodorov as defense chief in the new cabinet.

The plan was for parliament to vote on cabinet members after appointing the new premier, but due to the protests, the Verkhovna Rada is facing difficulties in obtaining enough votes to appoint Interior Minister Igor Klimenko as defense minister.

A two-hour break in the parliamentary hearing was announced after the Koretsky vote to allow lawmakers to debate cabinet nominations.

On Koretsky

Sergey Koretsky, born in Ukraine’s western Volyn Region in 1978, is a member of the country’s business community. After graduating from Lutsk National Technical University in the 2000s, he became involved in business projects. In 2022, he assumed leadership of the state-run energy companies Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta.

Ukrainian media outlets suggest that Koretsky, who has no public administration experience, was appointed prime minister thanks to his informal ties with Vladimir Zelensky and the latter’s old friend and business partner Timur Mindich. Meanwhile, there is no official information on Koretsky’s involvement in corruption scandals linked to Mindich. Koretsky represented Kiev’s position in the situation surrounding the suspension of oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline in January-April 2026 and was responsible for addressing the "damage" that Kiev claimed resulted from the suspension.