President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday he would replace his defense minister, the biggest shakeup at the leadership of Ukraine’s war effort since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February last year, citing the need for “new strategies ” while the war lasts. towards the second year.
The fate of the defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, has become the subject of increasing speculation in Ukraine as financial improprieties at the ministry surfaced and the government launched several investigations into official corruption.
Mr. Zelensky said in a statement that Mr. Reznikov, who was not personally involved in expanding investigations into the mishandling of military contracts, would be replaced by Rustem Umerov, the chairman of Ukraine’s State Property Fund. Mr. Zelensky said he expected Ukraine’s Parliament, which must approve the change, to sign off on his request.
“Oleksii Reznikov went through more than 550 days of mass war,” Mr. Zelensky said in a statement announcing his decision late Sunday. “I believe that the ministry needs new approaches and other formats of interaction with both the military and society in general.”
The decision to replace Mr. Reznikov’s move to the Defense Ministry comes as Ukraine is in the midst of a major counteroffensive that has made rapid progress in recent weeks, slowly gaining territory in the south and east. Last week, Ukrainian officials said they had captured the southern village of Robotyne, suggesting the offensive had penetrated the first layer of minefields, tank traps, trenches and bunkers deployed by Moscow between Ukrainian forces. and Crimea occupied by Russia.
The shake-up arose from a realization that Ukraine would need new leadership as the war dragged on, from Mr. Reznikov’s own demands to step down and from the clamor of criticism from civil society groups. Ukraine’s civil and media over the contracting scandals, said an official in the president’s office, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the dismissal.
Mr. Umerov, a former investment banker, was tapped to replace Mr. Reznikov even though he served in Parliament for Holos, a party opposed to Mr. Zelensky. He is a Crimean Tatar, a member of an ethnic group persecuted under the Russian occupation of the Crimean Peninsula.
There was no immediate comment from Mr. Reznikov, who has repeatedly faced questions about his future in recent weeks, including about whether he would move to a diplomatic role, that of ambassador to Britain. Mr. Zelensky’s announcement made no mention of any future assignments for Mr. Reznikov.
Since the start of the war, Mr. Reznikov has been a public face for Ukraine on the world stage. He was among some of Mr. Zelensky’s top security officials who remained in Kyiv, the capital, as it was partially surrounded by Russian forces after the start of the invasion.
Despite the decision to replace Mr. Reznikov, Ukraine experienced more stability during the invasion than Russia, which underwent several leadership changes and endured criticism of its battlefield tactics, ending in a brief rebellion by mercenary leader Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, who marched members of his Wagner private military company into Moscow in June then was pronounced dead in a fiery plane crash last month.
In October 2022, Russia appointed General Sergei Surovikin to lead its forces in Ukraine. He lasted only three months before he was replaced by Gen. Valery V. Gerasimov, the highest Russian military officer. US officials said General Surovikin had advance knowledge of Mr. Prigozhin’s rebellion plans, whose deaths several Western officials suggested were ordered by Russian President Vladimir V. Putin.
Mr. Reznikov won praise for negotiating the transfer of vast amounts of Western weapons donations under the Ramstein talks with the allies, named for the city in Germany where they began last year. He oversaw the expansion of the army and its transition from an arsenal of Soviet legacy weapons to Western systems even as his country was under attack.
Ukraine’s army rebuffed the Russian invasion with foreign military aid that was limited mostly to shoulder-fired anti-tank weapons in the first month of the war, but has since incorporated a vast arsenal of Western heavy weapons . In its counteroffensive in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions in the south of the country, Ukraine relies on US and European armored vehicles, tanks, artillery and guided rockets.
But the Defense Ministry has been hit this year by a spate of allegations of military contracting mishandling and corruption as its wartime budget ballooned. At one point, $986 million worth of arms contracted by the ministry were not delivered by the dates specified in the contracts, according to government figures. Some deliveries are months late.
Ukrainian investigative journalists have found other problems with military contracting, apparently showing huge overpayments for basic army supplies like eggs, canned beans and winter coats.
Mr. Reznikov said the ministry is suing to recover money lost on arms contracts. Government officials say many of the problems arose in the early, chaotic days of the war in Ukraine’s frantic scramble to buy weapons and ammunition and have since been fixed. Two ministry officials – a deputy minister and head of procurement – were arrested last winter after reports of overpriced eggs.
However, the contracting scandals prompted calls for Mr. Reznikov’s resignation.
Last week, the White House’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, met with three senior Ukrainian officials to discuss efforts to crack down on wartime corruption, as some critics of the war in the United States have used graft as an argument for limiting military aid. to Ukraine. Mr. Sullivan met with the leaders of a specialized investigative agency, prosecutorial office and court set up with help from the United States after Ukraine’s Western political pivot to the 2014 Maidan street uprising.
But it appears that the change was unexpected. On Friday, Mr. Reznikov is scheduled to visit the Pentagon later this week to meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III. The two men have regular contact and speak “quite often,” according to a US official who spoke on background as the news broke on Sunday. They are believed to have last met in person at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, in July.
Corruption has plagued Ukraine for most of its post-independence history but has improved over the past decade, according to assessments by Transparency International, a global anti-corruption group. Mr. campaigned. Zelensky on an anti-corruption platform before winning the presidency in 2019, and anti-graft efforts are widely seen as crucial to Ukraine’s efforts to draw closer to its Western allies, including its hopes to join the European Union.
In recent weeks, Mr. Zelensky has stepped up measures against wartime graft, sacking all of the country’s recruitment officers after bribery scandals and proposing legislation that would punish corruption as treason under martial law.
In May, the head of the Supreme Court of Ukraine was detained in a bribery investigation. And on Friday, Ukrainian media reported that and a court set bail at more than $25,000 for a former deputy economy minister accused of embezzling humanitarian aid.
The allegations leveling the ministry are not related to Western arms transfers but to domestic arms purchases, which are indirectly financed by aid from allies. These countries directly transfer arms and ammunition to the Ukrainian army while financial aid is directed to non-military spending. Ukrainian tax revenues fund defense procurement, where accusations of mismanagement have arisen.
In an earlier round last summer, Mr. Zelensky removed the director of his domestic intelligence agency and prosecutor general, amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement.
Carol Rosenberg and Daniel Victor contributed reporting.
