Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksi Reznikov tendered his resignation to parliament on Monday, a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky announced his replacement amid the war with Russia.
Reznikov himself announced the handing over of the letter of resignation to the Speaker of Parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk in a statement he published on social media.
“It has been an honor to serve the Ukrainian people and work for the Ukrainian army during the past 22 months, the most difficult period in Ukraine’s modern history”he said according to the French news agency AFP.
In office since November 2021, Reznikov, 57, has become one of the faces of the war against the Russian invasion and regularly travels abroad to negotiate military aid from Kiev’s western allies.
Zelensky announced on Sunday evening that Reznikov will be replaced by Rustem Umerov, a prominent leader of the Tatar community in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014.
Umerov, 41, represented Kiev in sensitive negotiations with Moscow before being named responsible for the country’s privatizations.
Parliament has yet to approve the change in leadership of the main defense ministry.
Zelensky pledged to step up the fight against corruption endemic in Ukraine, particularly in response to the conditions imposed by the European Union to keep Kyiv’s status as a candidate for membership.
Recently, several corruption scandals have come to light in the country, one of which directly concerns Reznikov, regarding a contract for the supply of military equipment signed with a Turkish company.
Umerov has headed the State Property Fund since September 2022, a highly visible position in a country where the privatization process is steeped in corruption, according to AFP.
Ukraine is at war with Russia, which invaded the neighboring country on February 24, 2022.
Source: DN
