The Verkhovna Rada supported the appointment of Viktor Lyashko to the position of the new head of the Ministry of Health.
This decision was supported by 262 People's Deputies.
17 parliamentarians spoke against it, another 73 abstained from voting.
Lyashko replaced Maksym Stepanov as Minister of Health. Before that, he was the chief medical doctor of Ukraine.
After voting for his appointment, the new head of the Ministry of Health took the oath. He thanked for the support and promised "not to let you down".
"I promise in the summer period to vaccinate 100 million Ukrainians against COVID-19 in the first 5 days," he replied.
Lyashko was asked if he was confident in his promise, the deputy minister repeated his promise, and then clarified: "10 million vaccinations - I said double doses, that's 5 million Ukrainians. This is at least guaranteed."
During his speech before the vote, Lyashko called overcoming the coronavirus pandemic in Ukraine the main priority.
"Overcoming the coronavirus disease is priority No. 1 for me. We will do everything so that Ukrainians can be vaccinated, work and travel. But this pandemic is not over yet and, unfortunately, it is not the last. That is why the biological safety of citizens will become the priority of the Ministry's work," he noted.
Lyashko added that by the fall, the Ministry of Health will have a completely different level of readiness of the healthcare system to respond to outbreaks of infectious diseases and epidemics.
"The approaches to responding to radiation and chemical threats will be completely revised," he summarized.
