From Reuters:
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday proposed National Guard commander Stepan Poltorak for defense minister, the presidential website said.
Poltorak would replace Valery Heletey, who offered his resignation as defence minister on Sunday after facing open criticism for the rout of Ukrainian forces by Russian-backed separatists at the end of August.
Parliament will vote on Tuesday on Poroshenko's nomination of Poltorak, 49, who has headed the National Guard since April.
Just in from AFP:
Ukraine national guard chief Poltorak nominated as defense minister
From AP:
Ukrainian military officials say they have observed a reduction in the presence of Russian troops in areas at the heart of fighting between government troops and separatist rebels.
Security spokesman Andriy Lysenko said Monday that Russian personnel stationed in field camps in Ukraine have been observed returning to their home bases inside Russia.
Moscow vehemently denies it has troops in Ukraine and that it provides support to separatist forces in Ukraine's largely Russian-speaking eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Lysenko's statement comes after an order by Russian President Vladimir Putin for thousands of troops posted near the Ukrainian border to return to their permanent bases.
Putin's spokesman said late Saturday that Putin had ordered approximately 17,600 troops to return home from the southern region of Rostov.
From our News Desk:
Ukraine's Batkivshchyna party has kicked out hundreds of members from its ranks as part of the country's lustration campaign.
The party's leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, told the ICTV television channel on September 12 that 1,518 members of her party had been expelled after their "dishonest" activities were revealed during implementation of the lustration law.
According to Tymoshenko, checks revealed that some individuals representing her party in Ukraine's parliament and regional power structures "dishonestly" voted for "illegal" land distribution and state budget allocations during the last 2 1/2 years.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed the lustration bill into law on October 9.
Under the law, up to 1 million public servants, including cabinet ministers, will be screened for loyalty to root out the corrupt practices of the administration of former President Viktor Yanukovych.