Military Shake Up: Ukraine’s Zelenskyy Moves to Replace Defense Minister

By Staff, Agencies

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he would ask parliament this week to dismiss Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov and to replace him with Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s main privatization fund.

The announcement on Sunday, made in Zelenskyy’s nightly video address to the nation, sets the stage for the biggest shake-up of Ukraine’s defense establishment during the war.

“I’ve decided to replace the Minister of Defense of Ukraine. Oleksii Reznikov has been through more than 550 days of full-scale war,” Zelenskyy said, noting that he believes “the ministry needs new approaches and other formats of interaction with both the military and society as a whole.”

The change of defense minister must be approved by parliament, but is likely to be supported by a majority of lawmakers in the Verkhovna Rada. Zelenskyy said he expected parliament to approve Umerov’s appointment.

Umerov, a 41-year-old ex-lawmaker who is a Crimean Tatar, has headed Ukraine’s State Property Fund since September 2022 and has played a role in sensitive wartime negotiations on, for instance, the Black Sea grain deal.

Zelenskyy’s announcement comes after Reznikov claimed the F-16 fighter jets supplied by Ukraine’s allies would be deployed by next spring and boasted about the country’s plans to increase drone production in an interview with the Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform.

“I think this autumn there will be a boom in the production of various Ukrainian drones: flying, floating, crawling, etc, and this will continue to grow in volume,” Reznikov said.

Earlier on Sunday, Zelenskyy spoke with his counterpart French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss the “functioning” of a sea corridor set up by Kiev for safe navigation of ships after Moscow exited a landmark grain deal.

The phone call came on the eve of a summit in Russia between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who wants to revive the grain deal, and as Moscow hit Ukraine’s Odesa region with drones.

“We also discussed ways to ensure the functioning of the grain corridor and enhance the security of the Odesa region,” Zelensky said on social media after a phone call with Macron.

Ukraine this week said four more ships had gone through its temporary maritime corridor in the Black Sea, set up last month to ensure safe navigation.

Meanwhile, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has quashed the allegations made by the United States that a Russian ship had picked up weapons in South Africa late last year.

Ramaphosa said an inquiry into the allegation found no evidence the vessel had transported weapons to Russia.

“None of the allegations made about the supply of weapons to Russia have been proven to be true,” Ramaphosa said in an address to the nation on Sunday.

“No permit was issued for the export of arms and no arms were exported,” he said.