Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov informed about the dismissal of his deputy Dmytro Klimenkov and a change in the leadership of the Defense Procurement Agency (DPA), previously headed by Marina Bezrukova.
This was reported by the Ministry of Defense (MDU).
Umerov noted that the results of the arms procurement were unsatisfactory, so the system needs to be changed. Instead of Bezrukova, the agency will be headed by Arsen Zhumadilov, who currently heads the State Logistics Operator (SLO).
The Minister of Defense emphasized that both departments had the same working conditions, but it was the SLO that completed the tasks, while the DPA "only created media noise".
"Unfortunately, over the past six months, instead of timely provision of ammunition to the army, we have received political games, showers of contracts and information (law enforcement officers will definitely check these facts), PR of inaction and failure to fulfill the KPI by a subordinate enterprise of the Ministry of Defense," the Minister of Defense emphasized.
He noted that during martial law, weapons purchases should be closed, but now every Internet user can see in real time who is buying what, in what quantities, and from which manufacturers.
The Ministry of Defense also withdraws two state representatives from the Supervisory Board.
"This will become a precedent in the history of state corporate governance, when two independent representatives of the Supervisory Board supported the stateʼs position, and the state-authorized representative of the stateʼs interests ignored the recommendations of the governing body," Umerov noted.
According to him, the restart of the Supervisory Board will take place in the near future.
The Anti-Corruption Center criticized Umerovʼs decision not to extend Bezrukovaʼs contract.
“Minister Umerov is disrupting a key reform of Ukraine — the defense procurement reform,” writes the agency’s executive director Darya Kaleniuk.
She called on President Volodymyr Zelensky to dismiss the Minister of Defense. According to her, it is not just about 300 billion hryvnias from the state budget, but also about the fact that this could destroy the Danish model of financing Ukrainian weapons purchases with foreign money.
According to Kaleniuk, these decisions of the minister are "unequivocal sabotage and undermining of the countryʼs defense capabilities".
She previously explained that the Supervisory Board has the legal right to extend the contract with the director of the Defense Procurement Agency without the approval of the Ministry of Defense.
What preceded this?
Executive Director of the Anti-Corruption Center Darya Kaleniuk wrote on Facebook that the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Rustem Umerov, before the creation of an independent supervisory board of DPA, in September 2024, wanted to dismiss Marina Bezrukova from the position of director of the department and appoint Oleksandr Ustinov, an MP from the “Voice” party, to this position.
"Together with Vitaly Shabunin, I was a participant in a conversation where the minister under Oleksandr reported to us his decision to dismiss both Marina Bezrukova and his deputy Dmytro Klimenkov because they were doing a bad job."
On January 14 of this year, Ustinova criticized the current leadership of the Defense Procurement Agency.
"As sad as it may be to admit, the agency in its current leadership cannot cope with the task assigned to it. Instead of contracts, there are constant scandals and the merging of information, names of companies that are often associated with foreign intelligence services and are pulling us what we shouldnʼt have. The whole world learns from supposedly closed information the prices at which we buy and from whom. This is unacceptable in wartime, because this cannot be called anything other than playing along with the enemy," she wrote.
In an interview with “Ukraiinska Pravda”, Maryna Bezrukova stated that her relations with Defense Minister Rustem Umerov "began to deteriorate" due to the incident with low-quality 120-mm mines.
She said that she signed a contract to supply these mines in her first weeks in office and "had no chance of not doing it".
In the summer, when it became clear that the plant could not produce the mines on time, according to Bezrukova, Umerovʼs deputy Dmytro Klimenkov asked DPA to extend the delivery dates under the contract. Bezrukova says she refused.
“We managed to get the money back for the disrupted projectile supply program, but we lost time,” she said.
- Earlier, DPA initiated a comprehensive audit of the agencyʼs activities, then involving the NATO international board of auditors. On January 24, 2025, the contract with the current head of the agency Maryna Bezrukova was extended for another year.
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