Reznikov was appointed to his post just three months before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi has said that he will fire the Minister of Defense It would be Reznikov from his task. He proposes a Ukrainian politician as the new defense minister Rustem Umerovia.
Zelenskyi told about it on Sunday, among other things, on his Telegram account.
– I believe that the ministry needs new methods of operation, Zelenskyi justified his decision.
The change of ministers still requires the approval of the country’s parliament. Zelenskyi says that he expects the parliament to support his motion to appoint Umerov.
Reznikov was appointed to his post just three months before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year. Reznikov has little military experience, but the 57-year-old lawyer has become one of the most famous figures of the war.
In the early months of the war, Reznikov helped in his mission to contain the Russian advance. After that, he spent much of his time trying to get support from Ukraine’s allies. Reznikov succeeded in persuading the allies to supply Ukraine with more and more Western-made weapons, including US Patriot air defense systems and modern main battle tanks.
Most recently, he led efforts to obtain US-made fighter jets. Last month, the United States finally gave Denmark and the Netherlands permission to deliver their F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
Survived a previous scandal
The Ministry of Defense, piloted by Reznikov, has been the target of corruption allegations related to military supplies.
According to media reports, at the end of last year, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine had signed an agreement with a Turkish company for the supply of combat uniforms. However, after signing the contract, the price had tripled. Reznikov has denied the accusations as false and assured that the invoiced prices have corresponded to the announced ones.
As a result of a previous corruption scandal related to the equipment of the armed forces, high-ranking Ukrainian officials were dismissed from their posts in January. Among others, the Deputy Minister of Defense received departure passes Vyacheslav Shapovalovbut Reznikov himself was still allowed to continue in his position at that time.
– It is difficult to accurately measure the stress I endured this year. I am not ashamed of anything, Reznikov said at the time and insisted that his conscience was completely clear.
After publishing an internal audit of procurement procedures, he admitted that the ministry’s own anti-corruption department had failed in its work.
At the beginning of August, President Zelenskyi, on the other hand, dismissed all regional officials responsible for the recruitment of the armed forces. The solution was supposed to root out corruption, which had been connected, among other things, to cases where some conscripts had been allowed to escape from military service.