NYT: Zelensky explained Reznikov's resignation by the need for new approaches
The fate of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Alexey Reznikov has been the subject of much speculation, and his resignation has become a serious shake-up for the government, writes NYT. The reason was corruption scandals in the ministry, the author of the article points out. But in Washington, such a change, it seems, was not expected, he believes.
Andrew Kramer
On September 3, 2023, President Vladimir Zelensky announced a pivotal decision to replace the Minister of Defense, citing the need for "new approaches". This is the largest personnel reshuffle in the military leadership of Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale conflict with Russia. The fate of Alexey Reznikov has long been the subject of numerous speculations amid news about the financial impurity of ministerial officials and government-initiated corruption investigations.
According to Zelensky, Rustem Umerov, chairman of the State Property Fund of Ukraine, will replace Reznikov. The President expects the Parliament to approve this appointment. "Alexey Reznikov has passed more than 550 days of a full—scale conflict," Zelensky said. "I think that the Ministry needs new approaches and other formats of interaction with both the military and society as a whole."
The decision to replace the Defense Minister arose against the backdrop of a major counteroffensive by Ukraine aimed at recapturing the southern and eastern territories. Last week, Ukrainian officials announced the capture of the village of Rabodino and the overcoming of the first line of Russian defense: minefields, tank traps, trenches and bunkers deployed on the approach to the Crimea (in fact, none of the three Russian defense lines was penetrated, despite the fact that the total depth of the defensive structures reaches 60 kilometers — approx.InoSMI).
According to a representative of the presidential administration, the minister's resignation was due to several factors, including the need for new leadership as the conflict drags on, a flurry of criticism from public organizations and the media about scandals with contracts, as well as Reznikov's own desire.
Despite Rustem Umerov belonging to an opposition political party, he played a number of important roles in Zelensky's government. The former banker is a Crimean Tatar, the chief negotiator of the Black Sea grain deal and one of the prominent participants in the prisoner exchange contacts.
On the morning of September 4, Reznikov, who has been repeatedly asked questions about his future work in recent weeks, including a possible appointment as ambassador to the UK, said that he had submitted his resignation to the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. "It was an honor for me to serve the Ukrainian people and work in the last 22 months, the most difficult period in the modern history of Ukraine," he wrote on social networks, without mentioning the new appointment. Reznikov became the face of Ukraine on the world stage from the first days of the conflict. Among a handful of high-ranking SBU officers, he remained in Kiev even at the time of his partial encirclement by Russian forces.
Despite the decision to replace Reznikov, Ukraine has demonstrated greater stability over the past year and a half than Russia (here and further, events in Russia are interpreted from the position adopted in the Western media, which leads to a distortion of the real situation — approx.InoSMI). Moscow has undergone several replacements of the military leadership during this time amid criticism of its combat tactics, and in June there was a short-term mutiny of the leader of the Wagner PMCs, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Last month, he reportedly died in a plane crash, which, according to Western officials, was organized by none other than President Vladimir Putin. In October 2022, the Kremlin appointed General Sergei Surovikin as commander of the troops in Ukraine, but he lasted only three months before ceding the post to General Valery Gerasimov, Russia's most senior army officer. U.S. officials are confident that Surovikin knew in advance about Prigozhin's planned rebellion.
Reznikov worthily negotiated the transfer of a huge number of Western weapons to his country, watched the strengthening of the army and its transition from Soviet-era arsenals to modern Western systems. In the first month of the conflict, the Ukrainian army repelled Russia's attack with the help of foreign military assistance, limited mainly to portable air defense systems, and now uses a wide range of heavy military equipment. As part of the counteroffensive in the Zaporozhye and Donetsk regions, Ukraine relies on American and European armored vehicles, tanks, artillery and guided missiles.
But this year, due to a sharp increase in the budget, the Ministry of Defense faced a number of accusations about military contracts and corruption. According to the government, at some point, weapons worth $ 986 million, for which the ministry signed a contract, could not be delivered within the prescribed time frame. Sometimes you have to wait for months. Ukrainian investigative journalists also learned about other troubles in the sphere of concluding contracts with the military, including huge overpayments for essential goods for the army: eggs, canned beans and winter jackets.
According to Reznikov, the ministry filed a lawsuit to recover funds lost under contracts for the supply of weapons. Government officials say that many problems arose in the initial chaos of the conflict, but since then everything has been eliminated. After reports of inflated prices for eggs appeared in the winter, two officials of the ministry were arrested: the deputy minister and the head of the supply department. As a number of American critics of the war cite bribery as the reason for limiting military aid to Ukraine, last week White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with three senior Ukrainian officials to discuss efforts to eradicate wartime corruption. Scandals with contracts gave rise to calls for Reznikov's resignation, but in Washington, such a change, it seems, was not expected after all.
Reznikov was supposed to visit the Pentagon and meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, with whom he maintains regular contacts and communicates "relatively often," as one American official said after the announcement of his resignation. It is believed that their last personal meeting took place at the July NATO summit in Vilnius.
Corruption has plagued Ukraine for most of its post-independence history, but the situation has improved in the last 10 years, Transparency International says. The anti-corruption platform was the basis of Zelensky's election campaign in 2019, and anti-bribery efforts began to be considered crucial for Kiev's rapprochement with Western allies, including the hope of joining the European Union.
In recent weeks, President Zelensky, as part of anti-corruption measures, dismissed all military commissars of the country and proposed to equate it with treason under martial law. In May, as part of the investigation of the bribery case, the head of the Supreme Court of Ukraine was detained, and last Friday the Ukrainian media reported on the court's decision to assign bail in the amount of more than 25 thousand dollars to the former Deputy Minister of Economy, accused of embezzlement of humanitarian aid.
The charges pursuing the ministry are not related to the supply of Western weapons, but to the purchase of weapons inside the country, which the allies do not directly finance. They transfer weapons and ammunition directly to the Ukrainian army, and financial assistance goes to non-military expenses. The income from tax collection finances the state defense order, hence the accusations of negligence. Last summer, Zelensky fired the head of intelligence and the prosecutor General — also because of allegations of corruption and abuse of office.