2023-09-03 20:37:45
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Sunday evening the upcoming replacement of his Defense Minister Oleksiï Reznikov by Roustem Oumerov.
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“I have decided to replace the Defense Minister of Ukraine,” Mr. Zelensky said in his daily address.
“Oleksiï Reznikov went through more than 550 days of war. I believe that the ministry needs new approaches and new ways of interacting with the military as well as with civil society at large”.
This change at the head of the Ministry of Defense comes at the height of the Ukrainian counter-offensive and while Mr. Zelensky 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 for maintaining Kyiv’s status as a candidate for membership.
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 had assured that the prices invoiced corresponded to what was offered by the manufacturers in Turkey.
This is the second alleged corruption scandal related to army supplies to rock Ukraine’s Defense Ministry since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.
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.
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