Parliament appoints Taran as Ukraine's defense minister

A total of 285 lawmakers voted in favor of such a decision at a snap parliament meeting on Wednesday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

Former Defense Minister Andriy Zahorodniuk headed the Ukrainian Defense Ministry from August 29, 2019.

Taran was born on March 4, 1955. He studied at Kyiv Higher Anti-Aircraft Missile Engineering School and the Military Air Defense Academy of the Ukrainian Ground Forces.

Taran worked in the Defense Ministry, the main intelligence directorate of the Defense Ministry, and at the NSDC's Strategic Planning and Analysis Center. He also served as a military attache at the Embassy of Ukraine in the United States and a Defense Ministry representative at the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UN.

From April to August 2015, he was a representative of Ukraine in the Joint Center for Control and Coordination on Ceasefire and Stabilization of the Contact Line. From September to November 2015, he was a member of the working group on security in the Trilateral Contact Group on the Settlement of the Situation in Donbas.

In December 2015, Taran was appointed the first deputy commander of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, where he stayed until April 2016.

In 2019, Lieutenant General of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Taran headed the campaign headquarters of presidential candidate Ihor Smeshko.

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