Mikhail Khorev, recently dismissed from the post of Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, does not plan to leave the field of environmental protection and will continue to work on environmental reforms.
He spoke about this in an exclusive commentary to the publication EcoPolitica.
He noted that the dismissal did not come as a surprise to him, because the Law "On Central Authorities" provides that when a minister is dismissed, his deputies are also dismissed from their posts by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. So Ruslan Strelets has been acting head of the Ministry of Natural Resources since November 2021, and when he was appointed, he decided to create his own team of deputies.
“It's logical. This is what every new leader does. The first thing he starts with is creating his own team,” explains Khorev .
According to the Law "On Central Authorities", deputy ministers are appointed and dismissed by the Government on the proposal of the Prime Minister of Ukraine and according to the proposals of the minister.
Khorev also added that, perhaps, the leadership had questions about his activities.
He explained that he had been involved in water issues since his student days, when he began to receive a specialized education in hydrology at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
"During the time of work at the State Water Agency, the then team managed to actually launch and take the first steps to introduce the basin principle of water management," he said.
Horev also added that an important step was the creation and launch of 2 modern water monitoring laboratories according to European standards - in Ivano-Frankivsk region and in Slovyansk, Donetsk region. Later, already in the position of Deputy Minister, together with the ex-head of the Ministry of Natural Resources Roman Abramovsky, 2 more were launched in Vyshgorod and Odessa.
“I can say that in general, a lot of positive things have been done in the field of water policy lately. Together with international partners, we managed to conduct screenings of surface water pollutants in the Dniester, Don and Dnieper basins," he said.
Also, together with experts, it was possible to develop the Marine Environmental Strategy of Ukraine, which is an important document for the implementation of the EU Framework Directive on Marine Strategy into Ukrainian legislation. Its approval is also provided for by the environmental block of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU.
In addition, a monitoring process for surface and sea waters has been established. The process of creating modern groundwater monitoring has begun. Started writing river basin management plans. The first parts of the PURBs of the Dniester, Dnieper and Seversky Donets are already ready. All work should culminate in the creation of comprehensive documents for the 9 main river basins of Ukraine. They are will be adapted to the conditions of the war and post-war period and will contain a number of comprehensive balanced measures for the restoration of rivers.
"Recently, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Environmental Policy and Nature Management, at its meeting, supported the bill "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Concerning the State System of Environmental Monitoring." After its approval, this document will become one of the most powerful European integration steps in the field of environmental protection ”, said Khorev.
Recall Cabinet dismissed three deputies at once Minister for the Environment.
As EcoPolitica reported earlier, Roman Shakhmatenko commented on the dismissal from the Ministry of Natural Resources.
