On July 3, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine supported the candidature of Colonel General Valeriy Heletey submitted by the President of Ukraine to the post of Minister of Defense. Respective draft resolution has been supported by 260 people's deputies, the president's official website informs.
In his speech, at the plenary session of the Parliament, Poroshenko emphasized that in power block appointments, he was guided by professionalism, decisiveness and devotion.
“Our army needs a commander who will finally initiate urgent reforms that should have been conducted 20 years ago. Reforms that would allow creating an army due to which nobody will ever think about planning the aggression against our country,” Poroshenko stressed in the course of introducing the candidature of Valeriy Heletey to the post of Minister of Defense.
Poroshenko emphasized that persons guilty of the collapse of the military-industrial complex and embezzlement of the material base of the Armed Forces must be brought before the law.
“Ukraine faces extremely difficult challenges. We must clean the army of those who parasitize stealing budget funds. We must restore the potential of our military-industrial complex that for many years has served as a cover for money laundering through the state defense order,” Poroshenko said.
“We must do everything for any serviceman – either general or captain – who took the bribe to be deprived of the opportunity to salute,” he noted.
The President claimed that holding of the CTO demonstrated complete collapse of military logistics.
Poroshenko expressed belief that the arrival of new people in security structures would break down corrupt schemes and allow bringing to justice the conspirators who tried to cash in on the safety of soldiers.
“We will not let anyone discredit and vilify our army. The army needs your protection just like the country today needs the protection from the Armed Forces, the National Guard, the border guards and the Security Service. We shouldn’t leave it alone with those who are trying to defame it repeating the voice of Russian propaganda,” he emphasized.
Poroshenko expressed gratitude to Mykhailo Koval for the high level of responsibility demonstrated on the post of Acting Minister of Defense.
The President noted that he had made a decision to appoint Mykhailo Koval to the post of Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council.
