President Volodymyr Zelensky has decided not to appoint a separate deputy prime minister for the occupied territories, instead opting for once again dismantling the Ministry into two parts: the Ministry for Veterans Affairs and the Ministry for the Temporarily Occupied Territories.
The President's Office is mulling the appointment of Ukraine's envoy to the Trilateral Contact Group's political subgroup Oleksiy Reznikov to the post of Minister for the Temporarily Occupied Territories, as reported by the Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda, citing sources in the President's Office.
At first, Reznikov was considered as a candidate for the post of deputy prime minister, set to deal with the issues of occupied territories. He underwent an interview on February 1.
However, as of today, President Volodymyr Zelensky has decided not to appoint a separate deputy prime minister for the occupied territories, instead opting for once again separating the Ministry of Veterans and the Ministry for the Temporarily Occupied Territories. The latter is expected to be headed by Reznikov.
Reznikov was deputy of Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko and ex-secretary of the Kyiv City Council. In September 2019, he became Ukraine's representative to the Minsk Group and was one of the active members of the Ukrainian delegation at the Normandy Four summit in Paris.
On February 4, Minister for Veterans, Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine Oksana Koliada announced that the ministry would be unbundled.
The President's Office also reported on February 4 that "according to the president's assignment, a decision was taken to establish the Ministry for the Occupied Territories."
