Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Major General Yevhenii Khmara, the country's acting security service chief, as acting defense minister following the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov, a move that sparked protests and legal questions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Major General Yevhenii Khmara as acting defense minister on Thursday, tapping the country's acting security service chief to fill a post left vacant by a government reshuffle that sparked protests across Ukraine.
Zelensky announced in a social media post that he would formally ask parliament to approve Khmara as defense minister once the required legal procedures had been completed.
The appointment follows the dismissal of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov earlier in the week, a move that drew demonstrations in Kyiv and other cities that continued into Friday.
Parliament on Thursday approved most members of Zelensky's new cabinet, but the defense and foreign minister posts remained unfilled. Under Ukrainian law, candidates for those positions must be nominated separately by the president, leaving both roles vacant after the broader cabinet vote.
Khmara, who has served as acting head of the Security Service of Ukraine since January following the dismissal of his predecessor, Vasyl Malyuk, brings a background in counterterrorism and long-range strike operations.
Before leading the SBU, he commanded the agency's Alpha Special Operations Center, an elite unit responsible for counterterrorism missions, intelligence support, and some of Ukraine's long-range strikes against Russian targets.
At the outset of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, Khmara participated in operations to push Russian forces out of the Kyiv region.
Zelensky pointed to that operational record as the basis for the selection. "Yevhenii Khmara has gained extensive — and in many respects unprecedented — experience in conducting technology-driven strike operations. This is exactly what our defense should be focused on in this war," Zelensky said.
Following Khmara's move to the defense ministry, his first deputy, Oleksandr Poklad, is expected to assume the role of acting SBU chief.
The appointment is not without legal controversy. Several Ukrainian lawmakers raised questions about whether Khmara's selection complied with national legislation, which requires the defense minister and deputy defense ministers to be civilians rather than serving military officers — a distinction Khmara, as an active major general, does not currently meet.
Whether parliament ultimately confirms Khmara, and how Zelensky navigates the civilian-officer legal requirement, will be among the immediate tests facing a cabinet reshuffle that has already drawn rare street-level opposition in a country at war.
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