Ukraine Appoints New Health Minister To Speed Up COVID Vaccinations RFE 20 May 2021, 19:45 GMT+10 Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has named a new health minister, who immediately pledged to speed up the country's sluggish vaccination campaign. RFE/RL's Coronavirus Coverage Features and analysis, videos, and infographics explore how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the countries in our region. Former Deputy Health Minister Viktor Lyashko was promoted to replace Maksym Stepanov, who was fired this week after Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal blamed him for a lack of vaccine doses. Ukraine is one of the European countries worst affected by the pandemic and its vaccination campaign has been lagging.