President: Newly created State Service for Emergency Situations subordinate to Defense Ministry
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said that the newly created State Service for Emergency Situations is subordinate to the Defense Ministry.
"Reform of the executive branch of government is continuing, and the optimization of executive government agencies is continuing. During this discussion in the government it was proposed that the Emergency Situations Service be included in the Defense Ministry," he said, while introducing new Defense Minister Pavlo Lebedev on Monday.
Yanukovych noted that the Emergency Situations Ministry had been reformed into the state service and is subordinate to the Defense Ministry.
He said that such a decision had been made due to the fact that each year Ukraine is facing problems related to the elimination of consequences of emergencies and natural disasters.
Yanukovych said that international experience shows that services eliminating the consequences of emergency situations work most effectively in the countries where they are subordinate to the armed forces.
The president said that in many cases, special vehicles of the Defense Ministry are used to tackle the aftermath of emergency situations.
"As a result, I supported this proposal and decided to carry out respective reform," Yanukovych said.
As reported, on December 24, Yanukovych signed decrees creating the State Service for Emergency Situations on the basis of the Emergency Situations Ministry and the State Inspectorate for Technogenic Safety and appointing former First Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Mykhailo Bolotskykh as its head.