Ukraine’s ruling political party, Servant of the People, said Sunday that they will remove Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov from his post and replace him with Kyrylo Budanov, who is currently serving as Ukraine’s military intelligence chief.
David Arakhamia, the head of the Servant of the People’s bloc in parliament, said that Reznikov will remain in the Zelensky government and is going to be transferred to another ministerial position.
Arakhamia said the change was due to the fact that a career military official should head the Defense Ministry, not a career politician like Reznikov. But the move came after a corruption scandal that recently rocked Ukraine and resulted in the firing of several senior officials.
One of the scandals was over the Ukrainian Defense Ministry purchasing food and other goods at an inflated price. Reznikov himself was not implicated in any transactions but has come under scrutiny as he headed the ministry at the time of the scandal.
Reznikov and other officials in the Defense Ministry insisted there was no wrongdoing and that any inflated numbers were due to a “technical mistake.” But due to the scandal, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister, Vyacheslav Shapovalov, was forced out.
Throughout the war, Reznikov has made very candid comments about the Western role in the conflict. Last summer, he offered his country as a “testing ground” for Western arms makers in a pitch to secure new weapons. He recently insisted that Ukraine is a de facto NATO member and said Ukrainians were “shedding blood” for a “NATO mission.”
On Sunday, Reznikov said he was confident that the US and its allies would provide fighter jets, saying Ukraine has received everything on its “wish list to Santa” except planes. ”
I read the Times article on this same story. It’s hilarious to read the doublespeak in the article. ‘The defense minister is totally being removed for corruption, but no he’s not corrupt at all. No such as thing corruption in the Zelensky administration’. Unbelievable what qualifies journalism these days. The lines between news and propaganda becomes ever more blurred.
It’s like the Nazi narrative.
Ukraine is the most corrupt country in Europe, on the level of African countries like Gabon, or Mexico. All of these types in government steal and take bribes, Zelensky too. Ukrainians “expect it” in their gangster state. Zelensky’s move is to show Western backers that he is doing something, probably also removing people who doubt his reckless decisions. Zelensky insisted, against the top commander’s strong opposition, that the Western-trained and Western-equipped forces be wasted in taking Kharkov and Kherson, where they have been crushed by Russian artillery from the other side of the nearby rivers. Which is why Ukraine is now losing Bakhmut in Donbass. After this absolute disaster Zelensky must make sure his back is safe. The head of the spy agency, now promoted, has regularly lied about Russia, he can be trusted. But not trusted by Russia, so now they’ll have no reason to ever negotiate with Kiev.
This just in from CNN:. A Ukrainian officer, who goes by the call sign “Sneaky,” said his men, who included a numbers of American and British volunteers, had “killed 16 Russians” …
More than one foreign fighter stumbled upon by CNN, at the unit level?! US mercenaries are directly fighting Russia in Ukraine, in large numbers, probably also dying in large numbers, but corporate media are too busy cheering for the war and begging for more of it to focus on it’s real nature: continuing and direct US aggression. That doesn’t just “risk escalation”, it is dangerous escalation.
Ukraine government is totally corrupt , but as long as they stay friendly to the West nothing will be done ,
Looks like CIA is shuffling corrupt Ministers to avoid having them get stuck in a Russian honey pot.
“Reznikov will remain in the Zelensky government and [will] be transferred to another ministerial position”…
…on condition he gives its director the 100 kilos of duck foie gras ReZnikov explained was ‘discovered in an abandoned Russian tank.’