Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has appointed a new defense minister – a general, or more precisely, a former general, Yevhen Khmara, who took the post a month after being appointed acting minister. Khmara left the military and relinquished his rank of major general literally a day before the vote in order to take up the position at the Defense Ministry – the law requires the ministry to be headed by a civilian.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Khmara’s start The impressive support Khmara received from lawmakers – 312 votes, significantly more than the simple majority of 226 and the constitutional majority of 300 – indicates that the Presidential Office did serious work with members of parliament. Khmara himself also enjoys a sufficient degree of trust among various political groups, for different reasons. For some, he is acceptable as a well-known military officer who has been involved in several high-profile special operations by the Security Service (SBU). For others, he is acceptable precisely because he is not as demanding as former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov’s – since he is still unfamiliar with the workings of such a large institution, he may not continue Fedorov’s decisive reforms, which alarmed the part of the bureaucracy concerned about the security of certain existing schemes. Some lawmakers were disappointed that the combat general had little understanding of procurement procedures. Parliamentarian Mariana Bezuhla described Khmara’s meeting with lawmakers ahead of the vote: