MOSCOW, September 5. /TASS/. The Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s parliament) has voted to approve Defense Minister Alexey Reznikov’s resignation, a lawmaker reported.

"The parliament has approved Alexey Reznikov’s resignation from the post of Ukrainian defense minister," lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak wrote on his Telegram channel, adding that 327 deputies voted in favor of the decision and four deputies voted against it.

According to Zheleznyak, voting on a new candidate for the position of top defense official will take place on Wednesday.

On September 3, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that he had decided to remove Reznikov from office and proposed to replace him with Rustem Umerov, who is currently in charge of the State Property Fund of Ukraine. The next day, Reznikov submitted his resignation to the Rada, which was then approved by the relevant committee. Now, Zelensky must submit a new candidate for minister to the parliament.

Reznikov’s resignation

Rumors about the resignation of Reznikov, who had been defense minister since November 2021, appeared in the Ukrainian news media in January following a major corruption scandal in the ministry involving marked up food purchases. The minister denied all accusations at the time, but several resignations among senior ministry staff did take place afterward. Reznikov himself kept his post. In August, the Defense Ministry again found itself at the center of a procurement scandal, this time involving winter jackets that did not meet required standards.

The stories surrounding these shady deals not only create doubt about the Ukrainian authorities, but also negatively affect Kiev's relations with Western partners, on whom it depends for financial and military aid. The West insists that this corruption must stop. In particular, Republican US senator Lindsey Graham, who visited Ukraine in August, said that Washington monitors where every dollar allocated to Kiev goes. Some local experts believe that the replacement of the defense minister will allow Zelensky to temporarily bury the scandal around the ministry, expecting the new defense official "to clean up the mess."

Ukrainian media reported that Reznikov might be appointed as the new envoy to the UK, but the official himself refused to comment, saying he had no such information.