KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine’s parliament will hold a special session on Monday to vote on plans to replace the country’s finance and health ministers, who have both been in office for less than a month.
The parliament gave no reasons for the planned changes in a statement announcing the special session.
Ukraine faces a sharp economic hit from the coronavirus epidemic and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the parliament must pass banking legislation and lift a ban on the sale of farmland to qualify for a new loan deal from the International Monetary Fund.
The vote could see Serhiy Marchenko appointed as the new finance minister, the parliamentary website showed. Marchenko worked as deputy finance minister in 2016-2018 and deputy head of the presidential office of Petro Poroshenko in 2018-2019.
The current minister Ihor Umansky, who has proposed a series of budget amendments seen by some as too radical, replaced Oksana Markarova as finance minister on March 4 following the resignation of Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk.
The parliament also plans to appoint new health and energy ministers.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; editing by Richard Pullin)
