Ukraine’s parliament on Sept. 5 approved the removal of Oleksii Reznikov as the country’s defense minister.
The move is set to pave the way for the latter’s replacement by Rustem Umerov, the current head of Ukraine’s main privatization agency.
On Sept. 3, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the decision to remove Mr. Reznikov, who tendered his resignation the following day.
“Oleksii Reznikov has been through more than 550 days of full-scale war,” Mr. Zelenskyy said when announcing the decision.
“The ministry needs new approaches and other formats of interaction with both the military and society as a whole,” he added.
Parliament is expected to approve Mr. Umerov’s appointment as defense minister on Sept. 6.
The move represents the biggest shakeup of the country’s military establishment since Russia launched its invasion of eastern Ukraine early last year.
Mr. Reznikov, who assumed office in 2021, played a key role in securing Western arms and equipment for the Ukrainian war effort.
But recent months saw his defense ministry dogged by a host of graft allegations. Earlier this year, the ministry was accused of procuring food and supplies for frontline troops at vastly inflated prices.
Mr. Reznikov, for his part, denied any wrongdoing and has said that his resignation was unrelated to allegations of graft.
Mr. Umerov, his prospective replacement, is a former member of parliament who has headed Ukraine’s State Property Fund since September of last year.
During his tenure, he has been credited with cleaning up the institution, which had faced frequent corruption scandals in the past.
In a Sept. 5 Facebook post, Mr. Umerov listed his achievements as head of the property fund and thanked his supporters.
“More important challenges lie ahead,” he wrote. “We need to be as efficient as possible because every hour of delay is the life of our defenders.”
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (2nd R) and Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov (2nd L) during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 12, 2023. Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images
Putin: Counter-Offensive a ‘Failure’
Commenting on the development, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said the replacement of Ukraine’s defense chief would not alter the course of the conflict.“It [the conflict] doesn’t depend on who is defense minister,” he was quoted as saying by Russia’s TASS news agency on Sept. 4.
“Everything [in Ukraine] depends on what Washington says,” Mr. Shoigu added. “They call the shots.”
News of the defense chief’s dismissal coincided with remarks by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Kyiv’s ongoing counter-offensive had failed to achieve its aims.
On Sept. 4, Mr. Putin claimed that the counter-offensive, which recently entered its fourth month, “isn’t merely stalling—it’s a failure.”
“At least that’s how it looks today,” he said at a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart in Russia’s southern city of Sochi.
“We’ll see what happens next,” he added.
Ukrainian officials, however, challenge Mr. Putin’s assertions and have continued to report gains on the battlefield.
On Sept. 4, Hanna Maliar, Kyiv’s deputy defense minister, claimed Ukrainian forces were still making headway on the eastern and southern fronts.
Within the past week, she said, Ukraine had reasserted control over one square mile of land near Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region.
According to Ms. Maliar, Ukraine has retaken almost 30 square miles near the city—which fell to Russian forces in May—since the counter-offensive began.
She also reported Ukrainian “successes”—she did not elaborate—near two contested villages in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.
Kyiv ultimately hopes to push its forces southward to the strategic city of Melitopol, thereby severing Russia’s land bridge to the Crimean Peninsula.
Last week, Ms. Maliar said Ukrainian forces had penetrated Russia’s first line of defense, which would serve to speed their advance.
In his resignation letter, Mr. Reznikov, the outgoing defense chief, claimed that “over 50 percent” of territory captured by Russia had “already been liberated.”
“Every day our defenders are moving forward,” he said in the letter, which was posted on social media.
Ukrainian soldiers enter the embattled village of Robotyne, Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, in a screengrab released on Aug. 25, 2023. Separate Assault Battalion 'Skala' of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/Handout via Reuters
Casualty Figures: A ‘State Secret’
Russian officials, however, have consistently disputed these claims.They say fighting remains underway—to varying degrees of intensity—in and around all the positions Kyiv claims to have captured.
Russian officials have also repeatedly claimed that Kyiv’s modest territorial gains had come at a catastrophic cost in terms of both men and equipment.
On Sept. 5, Gen. Shoigu stated that Ukraine had lost more than 66,000 men, along with thousands of pieces of military hardware, over the course of its counter-offensive.
Echoing Mr. Putin’s assertion, Gen. Shoigu further claimed that Ukraine’s military had failed to achieve its objectives “in any area,” according to comments cited by TASS.
In a separate statement, Russia’s defense ministry said that Ukraine had lost more than 5,600 men within the past week alone.
The Epoch Times could not independently verify the assertion, and Kyiv is notoriously tight-lipped about casualty figures.
The Ukrainian authorities recently barred journalists from visiting the frontlines, making independent assessments almost impossible.
Last week, the BBC interviewed a Ukrainian military officer serving in Donetsk who said Ukrainian troops were being killed “by the dozen” each day.
The New York Times, citing U.S. officials, recently put total Ukrainian losses at 70,000 dead and 120,000 injured—a figure far higher than previously reported.
Speaking on Telegram last month, Ms. Maliar reiterated that Ukraine’s casualty figures constituted “a state secret.”
“Not because anyone is trying to hide anything,” she said. “But because it’s a military necessity.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
