Ukraine’s protection minister resigns following Zelenskyy’s announcement of his substitute

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov submitted a letter of resignation on Monday after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned he would get replaced and named his successor.

Oleksii Reznikov’s elimination follows a scandal across the protection ministry’s procurement of army jackets. It was not the primary related case in the course of the ongoing struggle.

Zelenskyy made the announcement on his official Telegram account, writing that new management was wanted after Reznikov went via “more than 550 days of full-scale war.” He named Rustem Umerov, a Crimean Tatar lawmaker, as the brand new protection minister.

“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,” mentioned analyst Volodymyr Fesenko from the Kyiv-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 was appointed in November 2021, a number of months earlier than Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In his resignation letter, Reznikov identified that it had been “not an easy journey” from his appointment till at this time, however that he had been a part of the method of persuading worldwide donors to present Ukraine refined weaponry, from “the categorical refusal to provide Ukraine with Stingers in November 2021 to the creation of an ‘aviation coalition.’”

Umerov, 41, a politician with the opposition Holos social gathering, has served as head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine since September 2022. He resigned from that place on Monday, in keeping with the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament.

An economist by coaching, he has labored within the telecommunications and funding sectors, was concerned in human rights advocacy and has based quite a few funds to help the rights of Crimean Tatars.

Fesenko mentioned that Western companions worth Umerov for this position as head of the State Property Fund, and he is without doubt one of the few politicians in Ukraine with direct contact with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Since the full-scale struggle broke out, Umerov has been concerned in prisoner exchanges and was a part of the Ukrainian delegation in negotiations with Russia over the U.N.-backed grain deal.

Military analysts say that the substitute of the minister won’t have an effect on the state of affairs on the entrance strains as a result of the minister isn’t chargeable for operational choices.

Military analyst Roman Svitan mentioned the advance of the Ukrainian military southward in the direction of the occupied Melitopol and Berdiansk will proceed with out a pause in the course of the autumn-winter interval. Therefore, the brand new minister might want to “intensify negotiations with Western partners of Kyiv and ensure a continuous cycle of supplying the necessary weaponry to the front lines.”

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