On September 5, 2023, the Ukrainian parliament accepted the resignation of the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov (and the next day appointed the former head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine Rustem Umerov in his place).
The ex-high-ranking official has already been working at the head of the Ministry of Defense since November 4, 2021. What made Minister Reznikov memorable and what are the main reasons for staffing in the Ministry of Defense are analysed further in the article.
A non-military person
Oleksii Reznikov is a lawyer. In fact, he connected his entire professional life with jurisprudence. Since 2008, he has been involved in politics. He was a deputy of the Kyiv City Council twice in a row and even its secretary in the second term.
Reznikov managed to reach the state level with the coming to power of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his team. Initially, he held the position of Deputy Prime Minister — Minister for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, and on November 1, 2021, he was appointed Minister of Defense.
You cannot call Reznikov a purely military man, because he served in the Airborne Forces of the USSR from 1984 to 1986 only. Actually, this is good from the point of view of Ukraine’s Western partners. Although it was not directly stated anywhere, it is obvious that such a personnel move could be a strong recommendation of NATO, because, in the countries of the Alliance, there is a principle according to which the military should be out of politics.
A civilian Ministry of Defense, which is under strict parliamentary and public control – has this idea worked in Ukraine? There are several nuances here.
What did Ukraine get during the time of Minister Reznikov?
There were enough problems in the defence industry. During the time of Oleksii Reznikov, it was possible to put things in order with the state order, which was almost 100% fulfilled in the first year of work. In the next year 2022, a three-year public procurement plan was adopted, which replaced the defence state order. This opened opportunities for planning in the medium term. In addition, a number of programs in the defense sector were implemented: modernization of equipment and weapons, as well as development of new types of weapons in cooperation with Western partners.
The main achievement during the war was the acquisition of modern weapons from Western partners. According to Reznikov’s report based on the results of his work, during the 18 months of the war, the following were purchased, manufactured to the order of the Ministry, and received free of charge as international technical assistance for the Defense Forces:
- More than 7 million artillery and MLRS shells, mines, and anti-tank shots.
- Over 4,500 artillery systems and mortars.
- About 3,500 systems that protect our skies — from MANPADS to SAM MIM-104 Patriot.
- Over 6,500 MBT, IFV and APC.
- Over 2,000 trucks.
- A large number of small arms, radars, engineering equipment, different types of missiles, helicopters, evacuation vehicles, and much more.
- More than 70,000 Ukrainian soldiers were trained abroad.
According to the estimates of the Ministry of Defense, after the full-scale invasion, Ukraine received almost 100 billion dollars worth of equipment, weapons, and defence equipment. Cooperation was systematised in the “Ramstein” format, where the defence ministers of the partner countries at a round table worked out mechanisms for the supply of the necessary weapons for Ukraine.
A number of profile coalitions were created to coordinate efforts in one direction or another. The issue with tanks was complicated. But thanks to the tank coalition allies agreed to provide Ukraine with not only modern British Challenger and German Leopard II but American Abrams, which became the subject of difficult, but ultimately successful negotiations between Germany and the USA.
Currently, Ukrainian pilots are undergoing training on F-16 fighters, which should enter service with the Air Force of Ukraine approximately in the spring of 2024 and provide air superiority, which, according to experts, will significantly speed up the counteroffensive of the Defense Forces. Currently, three countries have already volunteered to provide such aircraft to Ukraine — the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway.
It is also worth noting Ukraine’s clear signal from NATO countries about joining the alliance after the victory over Russia (a reference to the Vilnius summit). This is due to the entire military and political leadership of the country, in particular Oleksii Reznikov.
And now let’s talk about the problems, which were also plentiful. During the time that Reznikov headed the Ministry, the defence sector was shaken several times by high-profile corruption scandals.
In the fall of 2022, the Ministry of Defense purchased 180,000 jackets from a Turkish firm with a full prepayment of $30 million. Journalists accused the Defense Department of price fraud. There is a package of accompanying documents for one of the batches of goods in public access.
It is interesting that in the course of the investigation, the journalists pointed to the founders of the supplier company “Vector avia hava araçlari”. They turned out to be citizens of Ukraine: former Zaporizhia businessman Roman Pletnyov and 26-year-old Oleksandr Kasai, nephew of Parliament deputy from Servant of the People political party Hennadiy Kasai, a member of the parliamentary committee on national security, defence and intelligence.
Oleksii Reznikov denied all the accusations and even offered the investigators a bet: if they prove the validity of their accusations, then the minister resigns, if not, then the journalists stop doing their professional activities. However, the political situation decided the fate of the match, which was never concluded, by itself.
Another high-profile corruption scandal broke out in January 2023. Journalists of the Ukrainian media ZN,UA reported that the Ministry of Defense apparently buys food for the military at significantly inflated prices. In particular, in the documents, the price of chicken eggs was listed as UAH 17 per piece, when the retail price in Kyiv supermarkets was only UAH 7. Although it was possible to find it cheaper. Potatoes were ordered at UAH 22 per kg, while in large stores their price was UAH 8-9.
Minister Reznikov’s explanations were quite interesting: he stated that the supplier simply made a technical error, which was corrected in time, and the price of a dozen eggs for the army is actually approximately UAH 85 per dozen. However, an internal investigation was announced at the Ministry of Defense, as a result of which Deputy Minister Vyacheslav Shapoval resigned. The story did not end there, and legal proceedings between the ministry and the State Audit Service of Ukraine are ongoing.
It is also worth noting that there were several scandals with less resonance, but which, against the background of the general picture, only added fuel to the fire. For example, Oleksii Reznikov is accused of having ties with Maksym Stepanov, the former Minister of Healthcare, whom the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine suspects of misappropriation of property and money laundering.
Apparently, the head of the Ministry of Defense personally agreed to a contract with Stepanov’s company to supply the army with tangible property and means of protection. The amount of the deal is UAH 185 million. Reznikov, of course, denied these accusations.
Not the only corruption?
Against the background of the internal political struggle in the USA, public appeals to Ukraine to fight corruption are getting louder and louder. Some Republicans hint that some of the resources provided by America are used, to put it mildly, not for their intended purpose. It is difficult to deny the fact that corruption still exists in Ukraine, as well as the fact that the fight against it is ongoing, despite the full-scale invasion of Russia (anti-corruption bodies created with the support of Western partners work virtually without any restrictions). It should be assumed that there is a large political component in these statements and not so much sincere concerns about the targeting of aid. At least, this is the most logical view from the point of view of electoral flirtations.
But this is only the most likely assumption. In any case, Ukraine is forced to respond to such statements in order not to lose bipartisan support in the United States. Therefore, the imprisonment of one of the most influential and richest people in Ukraine, Ihor Kolomoiskyi (who also has problems with the law in the USA), and the resignation of Oleksii Reznikov seem quite logical.
Expert opinions
Experts interviewed by The Ukrainian Review are quite sceptical about the dismissal of Oleksii Reznikov, considering it a political decision.
Oleksandra Reshmedilova, Doctor of Philosophy, leading analyst at the Public Diplomacy Foundation:
“Despite his resignation, Reznikov remains part of the [president’s] team. He may have further career prospects. In general, this is an attempt to remove negativity due to the appearance of a new minister, but whether such a signal will be perceived as cleansing by partners and inside the country – it is still a question. It is important to understand the prospects of assistance in the Rammstein format. One of Reznikov’s achievements is a certain stabilisation of negotiations within the framework of “Ramstein”. It is also important that Reznikov was a civilian minister of defence. It was decided to keep this advantage in the future, with the election of Umerov [the new Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov — ed.]. From the point of view of this innovation, Reznikov was the first to gain such experience.”
Source: https://www.facebook.com/
Oleksandr Kovalenko, Ukrainian military and political commentator of the “Information Resistance” group:
“I don’t think there are any other reasons for Reznikov’s resignation than those that are publicly available. These are the scandals that surrounded his team recently. I personally do not agree with what was done. There are investigations, accusations, but no criminal cases. The way these compromising materials appeared, it seemed that someone was trying to undermine the Ministry of Defense. At the same time, within the permitted information, there is an explanation from the Ministry of Defense for each episode that there is no global corruption scheme in the department. There are errors at the level of this or that artist that have been fixed.
I am sure that Rustem Umerov will have the same problems. His team will be accused of corruption, investigations will be carried out, which will not have legal consequences. There will be informational attacks. That is, I believe that the dismissal of Reznikov is a significant blow to the work of the Ministry of Defense.”
Conclusions
Oleksii Reznikov showed himself in a qualitative way representing the interests of Ukraine in the international arena. He was one of those who established constant contact with the defence departments of the partner countries and was able to achieve significant military and financial assistance. At the same time, an ever-increasing stream of corruption scandals followed him. How significant the responsibility of Reznikov himself was remains to be determined, however, he was not able to completely defeat corruption in the Ministry of Defense, and the fight against corruption is almost the main demand of Ukrainian allies.
Kostyantyn Grechany
