On July 13, after 7 years in office, the controversial Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov resigned. Denis Monastyrsky, who previously headed the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Law Enforcement and was an assistant to Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Gerashchenko, became the new head of the ministry.
President Zelensky proposed Monastyrsky’s candidacy at the “Servant of the People” faction meeting, and Monastyrsky himself emphasized from the parliament’s podium that he is “part of the president’s team”. On July 16, 271 members of parliament voted in favor of this decision.
Denis Monastyrsky is a professional lawyer who graduated from the Law Faculty of Khmelnytsky University of Management and Law. He holds a PhD and is a former lecturer at the same institution. He worked in private and foreign law firms and headed the Department of Legislation and Scientific Expertise, recently focusing on developing criminal legislation. Like his predecessor, he is a civilian Minister of Internal Affairs with no prior experience in law enforcement.
Denis Monastyrsky was an assistant to MP Gerashchenko, with whom he worked at the Ukrainian Institute of the Future (UIF). SENS’s sources report that Mr. Gerashchenko’s influence in the UIF is very significant. Mr. Monastyrsky himself told journalists that he had ceased communication with Mr. Gerashchenko. The fate of the latter as deputy minister remains unknown. According to general ethics rules, deputy ministers submit their resignations following their patron’s resignation.
Monastyrsky emphasizes his support for the president’s policies and doesn’t plan radical reforms in the Ministry of Internal Affairs structure, but will seek to increase police salaries. He considers public safety, fighting organized crime, combating drug trafficking, and developing patrol police for citizen security among his main tasks.
This is a tool to ‘talk away’ the case – to let society forget that no one searched for the real killers and won’t search for them
Regarding the Sheremet case, the new head noted that the case is currently in court, so it’s too early to draw conclusions. SENS head Leonid Maslov publicly sharply criticized this position, arguing that it is manipulative and effectively promotes crime. “This is a tool to ‘talk away’ the case – to let society forget that no one searched for the real killers and won’t search for them, Maslov noted.
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