Parliament approves Naftogaz chief Chernyshov as deputy PM and 'minister for national unity'
Ukraine's parliament on Dec. 3 supported the candidacy of Oleksii Chernyshov for the position of a vice prime minister and the "minister for national unity," lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said.
The new minister's powers remain unclear. President Volodymyr Zelensky presented the department as part of Ukraine's resilience plan, saying it would focus on strengthening relations with Ukrainians living abroad.
Later in the day, the government renamed the Ministry for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories to the Ministry of National Unity of Ukraine.
"This institutional strengthening will help to create a new quality of work and interaction with the multimillion Ukrainian community from all waves of migration," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
Even before the full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian diaspora has been widespread around the world, with particularly large communities in the EU, the U.S., and Canada. The war drew millions more from their home, with some 6.7 million living as refugees abroad as of August 2024.
Chernyshov served as the governor of Kyiv Oblast between October 2019 and March 2020 and as the communities and territories development minister between March 2020 and November 2022.
Since 2022, Chernyshov has been the CEO of the Naftogaz Group, Ukraine's state-owned energy giant. According to Zhelezniak, a new head of the company will be selected.
Chernyshov's candidacy was supported by 237 lawmakers.
Dominic Culverwell
