In a controversial move criticized by many experts and anti-graft activists, the Verkhovna Rada has appointed businessman and manager Oleg Uruskiy as the country’s first-ever vice prime minister for strategic industries.
The newly-created post is expected to carry out policymaking related to Ukraine’s defense and aerospace manufacturing industry, allegedly in a bid to put an end to the degradation and endemic corruption in these once-thriving industries.
At the request of the President’s Office, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal nominated Uruskiy for the post in parliament on July 14. A few days earlier, the prime minister nominated Uruskiy, but then withdrew the nomination.
On July 15, 250 lawmakers voted in favor of Uruskiy’s candidacy, with two parties — the 27-seat European Solidarity and the 20-seat Golos factions — not casting a single vote in favor.
The nomination follows months of deliberations and backroom intrigues inside the administration of President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his faction in the Rada and inside the country’s National Security and Defense Council as the authorities searched for the most suitable candidate for the new position.
“My foremost task is to put the system in order, to get rid of the mayhem our industry is in,” Uruskiy said in the parliament on July 16, before the vote took place.
“We’re planning to cooperate with specialized organizations, we’ve got common projects. Only together can we get around the crisis our manufacturing is in,” he said.
The new office has not published any roadmap for achieving the goals that Uruskiy mentioned in his speech.
Uruskiy has spent much of his career in various positions in Ukraine’s national security and industrial sectors, including in state-run defense production giant UkrOboronProm and the State Space Agency.
Since April 2020, he has chaired private engineering software company Progresstekh-Ukraina, the final beneficiary of which is Vladimir Kultsitskiy, a Russian scientist and member of the Academy of Military Science, a pro-Kremlin defense think tank based in Moscow.
For this reason, media and activists in Ukraine’s defense community have overtly accused Uruskiy of ties with the Kremlin. The official denied the allegation and said that Progresstekh was initially established in the United States and that Kultsitskiy had permanent residency in Ukraine.
Others have raised concerns that Uruskiy was not the most qualified candidate for the job. Other nominees reported considered included engineer Oleg Korostelyov, director of Kyiv-based design bureau Luch, which recently gained fame after it constructed two missile systems, Neptun and Vilkha.
Korostelyov reportedly put forward a plan of concrete steps he would take as minister, but Zelensky’s circle didn’t like it.
Now the new deputy prime minister, Uruskiy, is expected to also spearhead the new Ministry of the Defense Industry that will be established in the near future as part of the Zelensky administration’s plan for national security reforms.
Even before the vote, as Uruskiy’s upcoming appointment became a hard fact, many watchdogs and activists spoke out against the move.
“The President’s Office placed a bid on Uruskiy arbitrarily, without any consultations with the parliamentary faction and the committee for national security,” said Hlib Kanievskyi from the Kyiv-based anti-graft watchdog StateWatch on July 13.
“It is possible that… Uruskiy isn’t tied to Russian secret services or military establishments. But does it really matter at a time when Russia is actively recruiting subversives in Ukraine?” Kanievskyi said. He believes that any connections with Russian business must be a “red flag” when appointing any public officials in Ukraine.
“This is basically a matter of survival of the Ukrainian community. If Uruskiy wants to work for Russian business — let him do that. But (people like him) need to understand that they have to bid farewell to any sort of political career.”
