Ukrainian defense minister resigns after replacement named

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov resigned Monday, a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced his replacement.

“I have submitted my letter of resignation to Ruslan Stefanchuk, Chairman of the Parliament of Ukraine,” Reznikov said Monday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

“It was an honor to serve the Ukrainian people and work for the Ukrainian Army for the last 22 months, the toughest period of Ukraine’s modern history,” he added.

His letter followed Zelenskyy’s announcement that he was replacing Reznikov, who had endured “more than 550 days of full-scale war,” with Crimean Tatar lawmaker Rustem Umerov in a search for “new approaches” against the Russian invasion.

The Defense Ministry had been beset with a procurement-related corruption scandal that prompted the resignation of Deputy Defense Minister Vyacheslav Shapovalov in January. While Reznikov has not been charged with any wrongdoing and maintains that his “conscience is absolutely clear,” the controversy sparked speculation for weeks over the fate of the ministry’s leader.

Accusations were also directed at regional recruitment offices as several officers were arrested for allegedly taking bribes to help men evade being drafted into the Ukrainian military, BBC News reported. On Friday, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan urged senior Ukrainian anti-corruption officials to pursue anti-graft cases “no matter where they lead,” according to BBC News.

“Reznikov was a good and prominent international negotiator, but it appears that there is chaos and disorder within the Ministry of Defense, which many deputies have taken advantage of, resulting in corruption scandals during the war,” said analyst Volodymyr Fesenko of the Kyiv, Ukraine-based Penta Center.

“All actions of the Ukrainian authorities are geared toward the interests of the war, and scandals and statements about Ukraine’s slow counteroffensive in the face of very limited military resources compel Zelenskyy to be flexible and seek new personnel solutions.”

Reznikov, 57, became defense minister months before the February 2022 start of Russia’s invasion. In his resignation letter, he highlighted contributions such as his success in coaxing sophisticated weaponry out of international donors, taking them from “the categorical refusal to provide Ukraine with Stingers in November 2021 to the creation of an ‘aviation coalition.’ “

With News Wire Services