Ukraine president proposes political novice Honcharuk as prime minister

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has proposed insider Oleksiy Honcharuk - a 35-year-old lawyer with little political experience - as prime minister, according to a parliamentary resolution published on Thursday.

Honcharuk became a deputy head of Zelenskiy's office in May, having previously led a non-government organization focused on economic reform and worked as an adviser to the Ecology Ministry. He ran for parliament in 2014 but did not get elected. Zelenskiy, a comedian-turned-politician who became president in April in a landslide election win that transformed Ukraine's political landscape, also nominated former Ukrainian ambassador to NATO Vadym Prystaiko as foreign minister, and lawyer and activist Andriy Zahorodnyuk as defense minister.

Parliament, which reconvened on Thursday, is expected to vote on - and approve - Zelenskiy's nominees later in the day. Zelenskiy's party, Servant of the People, won 254 of 450 seats in parliamentary elections in July, the first time a ruling president's party has won an absolute majority in the legislature and the right to independently form a government.

 

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