Anatoly Kinakh appointed Head of the National Security and Defence Council

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has formed half of the new composition of the government with Yuri Yekhanurov in the head, the presidential secretariat said referring to the presidential decrees signed on Monday evening.

Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) Stanislav Stashevsky has been appointed First Vice Prime Minister instead of Anatoly Kinakh. Kinakh has been appointed Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council.

The presidential decrees regarding other ministries have not been signed yet, the secretariat said. The ministers-socialists – Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko, Agrarian Policy Minister Alexander Baraninsky and Education Minister Stanislav Nikolayenko are likely to retain their posts in the new government.

Yuri Yekhanurov is expected to announce full composition of the new Ukrainian government in Dnepropetrovsk on Thursday, Itar-Tass reported.