What did Ukraine's parliament decide before 5 April 2020?
A look back at two late-March 2020 decisions by the Verkhovna Rada on land and on the cabinet.
What had Ukraine's parliament settled in the days leading up to 5 April 2020? Two decisions stood out, taken on 30 and 31 March.
On 30 March, the Verkhovna Rada elected Serhiy Marchenko as finance minister and Maksym Stepanov as health minister. The vote came as the coronavirus epidemic spread and a financial crisis loomed, which made both posts especially pressing.
On 31 March, the Rada passed a law on the circulation of agricultural land. It introduced a land market in Ukraine from 1 July 2021.
Taken together, the two decisions showed parliament acting on two fronts at once: filling the government posts that mattered most during the epidemic and the financial crisis, and setting a date for a land market that would open more than a year later.
