Verkhovna Rada

On 16 July 2026 the Verkhovna Rada confirmed a new prime minister and cabinet in a government-wide reshuffle following the resignation of Yulia Svyrydenko. Zelenskyy assigned Yevhen Khmara, acting head of the SBU and former commander of its Alpha Special Operations Centre, to perform the Defence Minister's duties from that day, but Khmara's own appointment still awaits a Rada confirmation vote that has not yet taken place. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko was floated for the Defence portfolio between 13 and 15 July, declined it, and took the National Security and Defence Council secretary post instead.

The Verkhovna Rada is Ukraine's unicameral Parliament, seated in Kyiv and constitutionally composed of 450 deputies elected for five-year terms. The Rada's normal electoral cycle has been suspended under martial law, continuously renewed since February 2022. Legislative authority has operated in a wartime mode throughout: sessions run under security protocols, some proceedings have been partially relocated or restricted, and the Rada has passed extensive emergency powers legislation. Despite these constraints it has maintained legislative continuity, ratifying international agreements, approving defence budgets, and confirming cabinet appointments from Foreign Minister Sybiha in September 2024 through to the July 2026 reshuffle.

The Rada's most consequential financial vote of 2026 came on 28 May, when 298 of 310 attending lawmakers ratified the EUR 90 billion EU loan agreement, the largest single EU financial commitment to Ukraine of the war. The first tranche of EUR 9.1 billion was split between defence procurement and macro-financial support. That vote sits alongside the Rada's approvals of IMF programmes, bilateral credit lines from the US, UK and EU member states, and the 2022 Lend-Lease framework, the same run of international financing acts that now proceeds alongside a domestic defence-leadership reshuffle at the height of the war.