MOSCOW, July 3 (RIA Novosti) - The Ukrainian parliament named Valerii Heletei the country’s new defense minister Thursday.
According to Ukraine’s new constitution, the president nominates both the defense minister and the head of the security service for Verkhovna Rada, Ukrainian parliament, approval.
Heletei was approved by 260 parliamentarians with the minimum 226 votes required in the Verkhovna Rada.
Heletei will immediately replace current acting Defense Minister Mykhailo Koval.
In March, Heletei was appointed as the head of Ukraine State Security Service. In 2007, Heletei served as the chief of the State Guard Department, but was dismissed by the then-President Viktor Yushchenko in 2009.
In 2007, Heletei falsely claimed that there had been assassination plots against Yushchenko, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and several other prominent Ukrainian politicians.
