Mr. Zelensky will fire the Minister of Defense of Ukraine
(Baonghean.vn) - President Volodymyr Zelensky is looking for candidates to replace Oleksii Reznikov as Minister of Defense, Ukraine's leading daily newspaper quoted informed sources in the Kiev government.
“The possibility of Reznikov’s resignation has gone from theory to reality,” Ukrainskaya Pravda (UP) reported. There are currently at least two candidates to replace Reznikov. UP has named two candidates, including Infrastructure Minister Aleksandr Kubrakov and Strategic Industries Minister Aleksandr Kamyshin. It is unclear whether there will be additional candidates. Reznikov “is not opposed to becoming Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UK,” although it is unclear whether the option is actually being considered. The proposal was first put forward by MP Aleksey Goncharenko on August 1.
Mr Zelensky fired Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, Vadim Pristayko, on July 21 after he publicly criticized the president’s sarcastic tone towards Western arms and ammunition deliveries to Ukraine at the NATO summit in Vilnius. Reznikov has portrayed himself as a key figure in convincing the West to deliver weapons to Kiev. In October 2022, he boasted to the US newspaper Politico that he had figured out the Pentagon’s political process, describing the trick as constantly setting higher standards and expectations until the Americans caved.
In late October, Mr. Reznikov described Ukraine as an ideal testing ground for Western military equipment, expressing hope that Kiev would soon receive main battle tanks and then fighter jets. The first tanks were promised in January, shortly after Reznikov declared that Ukraine was “carrying out a NATO mission,” with the military bloc supplying the weapons and Ukrainians providing the blood. However, Mr. Reznikov later got into serious trouble when Ukrainian media published the scandalously inflated prices paid by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry for the supplies. The first speculation about Mr. Reznikov’s replacement arose in February, when the leader of the ruling party bloc in parliament, David Arakhamia, said that Reznikov would be transferred to the strategic industries bloc and replaced by military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov. Reznikov reacted, stressing that this was the first time he had heard this and he could hardly agree./.