This change comes in full Ukrainian counter-offensive and while the Head of State has promised to strengthen the fight against corruption. Since the start of the war, two scandals have shaken the ministry.
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A new face for the Ukrainian army. President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sunday 3 September the forthcoming replacement of his Minister of Defense Oleksiï Reznikov by Roustem Oumerov. “Oleksiï Reznikov has lived through more than 550 days of war. I believe that the ministry needs new approaches and new ways of interacting with the army as well as with civil society at large”, said the Ukrainian president. Rustem Oumerov is a Crimean Tatar, head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine.
This change at the head of the Ministry of Defense comes in the midst of the Ukrainian counter-offensive and while the Ukrainian head of state has promised to strengthen the fight against corruption, which is endemic in Ukraine, in response in particular to the conditions laid down by the European Union to keep Kyiv its status as a candidate for membership.
Two recent scandals
Several corruption scandals have recently come to light in the country. One of them involves the Ministry of Defense which, according to Ukrainian media, signed a contract in the fall of 2022 with a Turkish company for the supply of winter uniforms, the price of which tripled after Signature. At the end of August, Oleksiï Reznikov assured that the prices invoiced corresponded to what was offered by the manufacturers in Turkey.
At the end of January, a series of senior Ukrainian officials were removed from their posts after the press revealed that a contract signed by the ministry and relating to the purchase of food products for soldiers showed amounts that were in fact overstated. Oleksiï Reznikov, who then admitted that the anti-corruption services of his ministry had “failed in their task”retained his post.