Ukraine should not violate the principles that bring it closer to NATO by allowing a military person to head the Defense Ministry, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence Yehor Cherniev (Servant of the People faction), who also chairs the Permanent Delegation of the Verkhovna Rada to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, has said.

"Even if there is a question of changing the minister, it must still be a civilian and we must not violate the principles that we have already taken as obligations in order to be as close to NATO as possible. Because there will be questions from NATO as well," Cherniev said on the air of the national telethon on Monday.

According to him, worthy candidates for the position of Defense Minister can be found among civilians. At the same time, the member of parliament (MP) noted that the issue of changing the Defense Minister of Ukraine has been suspended for today.

Answering a question about a bill that would allow a serviceman to head the ministry for a period of martial law, Cherniev replied, "I have not seen this bill, not even a bill, but an amendment to the existing bill... As far as I understand, this is solely an initiative of our colleague."

Cherniev also said that Defense Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov is in his place, but "you still need to do your homework and correct the mistakes that were made."

Earlier, Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security Maryana Bezuhla (Servant of the People faction) said the committee has prepared an amendment providing for the possibility of appointing a defense minister from among the military during martial law.