You're reading: Who’s Who In Groysman’s Cabinet

The new Cabinet of Ministers headed by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, which was voted into office on April 14, is a mixture of the old and new.

Nine out of the 23 ministers and deputy prime ministers served at the same or similar positions in the previous Cabinet, headed by former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. But several new names, who served under Groysman when he was mayor of Vinnytsya, have been propelled into high office.

The ministerial candidates were appointed under a quota system stipulated in the Constitution and agreed among the president, the former prime minister, the new prime minister, and the two biggest parliament factions – the Bloc of President Petro Poroshenko and the People’s Front, which is led by Yatsenyuk.

The position of health minister remains vacant: a candidate for this post has yet to be agreed.

The Kyiv Post has compiled the key information about the new ministers in the Groysman Cabinet, using official dossiers that were supplied to Verkhovna Rada deputies ahead of the ministers’ appointment by parliament.

Volodymyr Kistion

Deputy Prime Minister for the Infrastructure, Ecology and Energy

Quota: Volodymyr Groysman

Kistion, 50, has been working closely with Groysman since 2011. Kistion twice served as Groysman’s deputy – when Groysman was mayor of Vinnytsya (2011-2014) and when he served as minister for regional development (2014-2015). When Groysman was the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada (2015-2016), Kistion served as his adviser.

Experience: Before teaming up with Groysman in 2011, he spent 10 years as head of local state water utility Vinnytsya Vodokanal. As deputy mayor of Vinnytsya, he also focused on housing and utility infrastructure.

Education: Odessa State Academy of Civil Engineering and Architecture, majoring in Water and Sanitation.

Plans: Kistion is to coordinate the work of three ministries: the Infrastructure Ministry, Coal and Energy Ministry, and Ecology Ministry. One of his main focuses will be the condition of the country’s roads. “We will coordinate efforts with local government to reconstruct roads in a short period, using local budget funds,” said Kistion.

Stepan Kubiv

First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development

Quota: Bloc of Petro Poroshenko

Experience: Kubiv, 54, has worked in the financial and banking sphere since 1994. In 2012, he became the chairman of Kredobank Ukraine. He was an active participant in the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2013-2014. After it ended, Kubiv was made head of the National Bank of Ukraine for four months, until mid-2014.

Education: Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (class of 1984), majoring in mathematics. National University Lviv Polytechnic (class of 2002), majoring in economics and finance. Has a Ph.D. in economics.

Plans: Kubiv told the Novoe Vremya magazine that he had promised his predecessor, ex-Minister of Economic Development Aivaras Abromavicius, to continue the strategy of Abromavicius’s team of reformers. That includes privatizing state enterprises and simplifying legal procedures for business. Kubiv also said he wants to stimulate innovations and science in Ukraine.

Oleksandr Sayenko

Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers

Quota: Volodymyr Groysman

Sayenko, 33, worked as the head of secretariat for the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada under Groysman (2015-2016) and as an assistant to Groysman (January – March 2015).

Experience: Sayenko worked in various state agencies in managerial positions until 2013. He never stayed in a job for more than a year, according to the application he filled to take the job in the Cabinet. In 2014, he registered himself as unemployed at an employment center in Kyiv.

Education: National University of State Fiscal Service, majoring in law (class of 2006).

Plans: Sayenko wrote on Facebook that he would start by modernizing the internal communications in the Cabinet.

Hennadiy Zubko

Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities

Quota: Bloc of Petro Poroshenko

Experience: Zubko, 48, held the same position in Yatsenyuk’s Cabinet since 2015. Before that, he served as the deputy head of Poroshenko’s presidential administration.

From 2014, Zubko was responsible for the decentralization process in Ukraine. Before that, he was chairman of PSC Zhytomyr, a plant that manufactures fencing.

Education: National Technical University of Ukraine “Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”, majoring in electrical engineering (class of 1991). MBA at National University Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Plans: Zubko has said that in 2016 there must be a breakthrough in the decentralization process in Ukraine. He has also said he hopes to increase the budget of the Regional Development Fund.

Arsen Avakov

Interior Minister

Quota: People’s Front, Arseniy Yatsenyuk

Experience: Avakov has been working as Ukraine’s Interior Minister since 2014. Before his appointment, Avakov was a member of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council (2007-2008). This was his only previous connection to law enforcement agencies. He was for five years the governor of Kharkiv Oblast, being dismissed in February 2010.

In 2012, Avakov was living in Italy because of criminal proceeding had been launched against him in Ukraine. Prosecutors were investigating Avakov of misconduct. After that, Avakov was an active participant in the EuroMaidan Revolution.

Education: National Technical University of Ukraine Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute, degree in engineering automated control systems.

Plans: According to his spokesperson Artem Shevchenko, Avakov plans to reform the State Emergency Service to engage local communities in fire rescue operations. Avakov then wants to focus on improving the work of local police offices, and to increase the wages of border guards to fight bribery.

Ihor Nasalyk

Minister of Energy and the Coal Industry

Quota: Bloc of Petro Poroshenko

Experience: Nasalyk, 53, has been working in the energy and coal industry since 1993. He was the president of oil company Techno Center Corporation and a member of the supervisory board of Ukrnafta, a state-owned oil company. In 1998, he was elected to parliament for the first time, and became a member of its Committee on Fuel and Energy. He headed the committee in 2014-2015. Nasalyk briefly served as mayor of Kalush, a city in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast.

Education: Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (class of 1990), majoring in optical and electro-optical systems.

Plans: Nasalyk told Dzerkalo Tyzhnya newspaper that he would fulfill the demands of the International Monetary Fund to raise utility rates.

Ostap Semerak

Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources

Quota: People’s Front, Arseniy Yatsenyuk

Experience: Semerak, 43, was minister of the Cabinet of Ministers in 2014-2015 in Yatsenyuk’s government. He has experience as an administrative worker, consultant and member of various political parties and non-government organizations connected with reforms. He has never worked in the sphere of ecology.

Education: Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (class of 1994), majoring in physics. Master’s degree in political science from National University Kyiv Mohyla Academy (1998).

Plans: Semerak wants to turn the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone into a scientific area. At the same time, he said that Ukraine should stop paying $200 million a year to Russia for radioactive waste storage and instead store the waste in the Chornobyl zone.

Ihor Zhdanov

Minister of Youth and Sports

Quota: People’s Front

Experience: Zhdanov, 48, has been the minister of youth and sports since 2014. Before his appointment, he had no connection with this field. Zhdanov is an experienced political analyst and used to work at the Razumkov Center of Political and Ecological Research (1999-2005). He was a member of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (1997-1999) and has been a lawmaker with various parties.

Education: Kyiv Shevchenko University (class of 1994), majoring in history. Ph.D. in political science.

Plans: According to the ministry’s website, Zhdanov is continuing to develop a “Road Map of Reforms in the Youth Field,” and is trying to improve the system for issuing presidential grants to talented young people.

Vadym Chernysh

Minister for Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced People

Quota: Bloc of Petro Poroshenko

Experience: Chernysh, 45, was the chairman of the State Agency for the Restoration of the Donbas in 2015. In August 2015, the Cabinet allocated Hr 4 million to the agency. Before that, in 2014-2015, Chernysh was the president of the Center for Security and Money Laundering Problems Studies.

Education: Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University of Kharkiv (class of 1999), majoring in law.

Plans: Chernysh plans to create a new Ministry for Occupied Territories, using the State Agency for the Restoration of the Donbas as a basis. As of now, the ministry exists only on paper. After that, he plans to start a fund to raise money for the restoration of the Donbas.

Stepan Poltorak

Minister of Defense

Quota: President Petro Poroshenko

Experience: Poltorak, 51, has been defense minister since October 2014. His candidacy was proposed by Poroshenko, who as president has the constitutional right to nominate his candidate for this post. Poltorak started his career in the military in 1983 as a platoon commander.

In 2002, Poltorak became the chairman of the National Academy of Interior Troops of Ukraine. In February 2014, he was appointed the commander of the Interior Troops of Ukraine.

Education: National University of Defense of Ukraine (class of 1997). Has a Ph.D. in pedagogy.

Plans: By 2020, Poltorak plans to reform the Ukrainian military to bring it up to the high military standards of NATO.

Andriy Reva

Minister of Social Policy

Quota: Volodymyr Groysman

Experience: Reva worked as head of the Social Services Office in Vinnytsya in the 2000s. He has served as a deputy mayor for three mayors of Vinnytsya, including Groysman. According to Groysman, Reva created the first municipal insurance company in Ukraine.

Education: Interregional Academy of Personnel Management (class of 2004), majoring in law. Groysman graduated from the same college in the same year, with the same major.

Plans: In an interview with the newspaper Dzerkalo Tyzhnya, Reva said that the state does not have enough money to provide full benefits to all citizens, so the Social Ministry needs to replace benefits with individual financial aid payments for those in need.

Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze

Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration

Quota: Bloc of Petro Poroshenko

Experience: Before her appointment, Klympush-Tsintsadze worked as the first deputy chairman of the parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. She is also a director of the Yalta European Strategy charity organization, financed by oligarch Victor Pinchuk.

Education: National Pedagogical Institute, majoring in defectology and speech therapy. Studied international relations at Kyiv Shevchenko University and Montana State University.

Plans: She will work to bring Ukrainian legislation and the judicial system into line with European Union rules as part of the implementation of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU.

Liliia Hrynevych

Minister of Education and Science

Quota: People’s Front

Experience: Hrynevych used to work at George Soros’s International Renaissance Foundation. She participated in developing a transparent testing system for college entry. She also served as head of education and science at Kyiv City Administration under ex-Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky. Before her ministerial appointment, she was a lawmaker and head of the parliamentary Committee on Science and Education.

Education: Lviv National Ivan Franko University, majoring in biochemistry. Lviv Polytechnic University, majoring in economics. She has a Ph.D. in pedagogy.

Plans: Hrynevych plans to increase the length of Ukrainian secondary schooling to 12 years. It currently lasts 10 years.

Yevhen Nyshchuk

Minister of Culture

Quota: Petro Poroshenko Bloc

Experience: Nyshchuk is a Ukrainian theater and film actor. He previously served as minister of culture in 2014. He was appointed after EuroMaidan Revolution, and actively participated in it, working as a host on the stage at Maidan Nezalezhnosti Square. He was called “the voice of Maidan.”

Education: Kyiv National Theater, Cinema and Television University, majoring in acting.

Plans: Nyshchuk wants to revive cultural centers and libraries in Ukraine’s villages, using donations from local entrepreneurs, he has told the Dzerkalo Tyzhnya newspaper.

Vyacheslav Kyrylenko

Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Affairs

Quota: People’s Front

Experience: Kyrylenko had no connection with culture until he was appointed minister of culture in December of 2014 in Yatsenyuk’s government. He was an active participant of Orange Revolution in 2004 and the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2013-2014, and is a member of nationalist organizations. He briefly served as minister of labor and social policy in the cabinet of Yulia Tymoshenko in 2005, and as deputy prime minister for social policy in Yuriy Yekhanurov’s cabinet later the same year.

Education: Taras Shevchenko National University, majoring in philology. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy.

Plans: Kyrylenko has focused mostly on attempting to ban anti-Ukrainian Russian books and movies. He has banned certain Russian movies on Ukrainian TV and in cinemas. He advocates the introduction of quotas for Ukrainian-language songs on radio.

Pavlo Klimkin

Minister of Foreign Affairs

Quota: President Petro Poroshenko

Experience: Klimkin has served as minister of foreign affairs since June 19, 2014. Before that, he worked in the Ukrainian embassies in the U.K. and Germany, and served as a deputy minister of foreign affairs for Kostyantyn Gryshchenko in 2010 in the cabinet of Mykola Azarov.

Education: Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, majoring in math and physics.

Plans: In his recent statements, Klimkin pledged to develop Ukraine’s relations with the Middle East, China and India. He also promised to simplify the visa application for foreigners looking to visit Ukraine.

Oleksandr Danylyuk

Minister of Finance

Quota: President Petro Poroshenko

Experience: Danylyuk has previously worked at Western NIS Enterprise Fund, and was a senior consultant at McKinsey & Company in London.

Before his appointment, he represented Petro Poroshenko in the Cabinet of Ministers. Since last September he has worked as a deputy head of the Presidential Administration.

Education: Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, majoring in electrical engineering. Kyiv Investment Management Institute, majoring in securities. He has an MBA from Indiana University Kelley School of Business.

Plans: Danylyuk has named cooperation with the International Monetary Fund as his top priority. “The Finance Ministry, through funding mechanisms, can encourage reforms in education, medicine, and social services,” he told the Dzerkalo Tyzhnya newspaper.

Volodymyr Omelyan

Minister of Infrastructure

Quota: People’s Front

Experience: Before his appointment, Omelyan was a deputy infrastructure minister under ex-Minister Andriy Pivovarsky. Earlier he worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ecology Ministry, and the Finance Ministry.

Education: Lviv National Ivan Franko University, majoring in international relations. Lviv Polytechnic University, majoring in economics and finance.

Plans: Omelyan plans to break up Ukravtodor, the centralized state road agency, and make the local authorities responsible for the condition of roads.

Pavlo Petrenko

Minister of Justice

Quota: People’s Front

Experience: Petrenko has served as minister of justice since Feb. 27, 2014. Before that, Petrenko worked in senior positions in the department of legal support at state-owned Oshchadbank.

Education: University of Finance and International Trade, majoring in management. Master’s degree in law from Chernivtsi National University.

Plans: Petrenko says he will continue the reforms he started: restructuring local justice departments into legal aid centers, and transferring paper-based registers in an electronic format. Judicial reform, which includes the competitive testing for judges, will be conducted over the next two years, he says.

Pavlo Rozenko

Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Social Policy

Quota: President Petro Poroshenko

Experience: Rozenko has served as minister of social policy since December 2014. He started his career as an assistant to a lawmaker. In 2006, he was a deputy social policy minister, under Vyacheslav Kyrylenko.

Education: Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, majoring in engineering.

Plans: Rozenko told Ukrainian television’s Channel 112 that he will focus on benefits and pensions for disadvantaged people. He also said that Ukraine must restore financial compensation for victims of the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear plant explosion.

Taras Kutovyi

Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food

Quota: President Petro Poroshenko

Experience: Kytovyi has worked at top positions in various businesses, including agricultural companies. As a lawmaker with the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko, he headed the Committee on Agrarian Policy.

Education: Kyiv Economy University, majoring in international economy. International Management Institute, majoring in foreign trade. He has a Ph.D. in economics.

Plans: Kutovyi says he plans to continue the work of his predecessor Oleksiy Pavlenko, but provide more support to small farms.

Kyiv Post Staff writers Veronika Melkozerova and Yuliana Romanyshyn can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected].