Independent members of the Supervisory Board of the Defense Procurement Agency (DPA) voted not to extend Maryna Bezrukovaʼs contract because they did not want to act contrary to the current statute of the Supervisory Board.
Kateryna Kuznetsova and Lukasz Stolyarski told Babel about this.
The Supervisory Board of DPA has five members: three independent members: Patrick Auroy, Kateryna Kuznetsova, and Lukasz Stolyarski. And two representatives of the state: Yuriy Dzhyhyr and Taras Chmut. They were appointed by the Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov.
On December 16, 2024, before the first meeting of DPA, the Ministry of Defense changed the Agencyʼs charter without approval. The Ministry granted itself the right "in case of a threat to national security" to change the heads of agencies alone, without the approval of the supervisory boards. They explained that this was not an attempt to deprive the agency of its independence, but reinsurance — during a war, the supervisory board will not always be able to gather at a critical moment.
At that time, the DPA supervisory board had to decide whether to extend Bezrukova’s contract, which expired on January 31, 2025. Minister Umerov opposed this. Supervisory board member Yuriy Dzhyhyr says that they tried to resolve this issue — they wrote letters, draft decisions. But at the meeting, Umerov said that he expected Bezrukova’s dismissal and a competition for a new head of DPA.
The supervisor had a different plan — they didn’t want to fire Bezrukova, as it could compromise the newly created body. So the supervisor wanted to keep Bezrukova and conduct an independent audit of DPA. This idea was suggested by Lukasz Stolyarski, who had experience working in the NATO NSPA — the DPA role model.
"We had a word against a word. And both parties bear responsibility here. However, if the audit result is negative, we will immediately terminate the contract with the director. But if not, we will remove all ministerial objections," Stolyarsky tells Babel.
The Ministry of Defense told Babel that independent auditors would not be able to analyze the DPA contracts because this is classified information. And even if a solution were found, the audit would take a long time, and DPA would continue to fail procurements.
Already on January 22, 2025, the Ministry of Defense sent a letter to the supervisory board, in which it did not approve its draft decision regarding Bezrukova and noted that it had every right to do so, according to the statute. Nevertheless, on January 23, the supervisory board voted: Chmut and Dzhyhyr — for the continuation, Stolyarsky and Kuznetsova — against.
Before the vote, Kuznetsova proposed to recognize that the Ministry of Defense, according to the charter, does not approve the extension of Bezrukovaʼs contract, and to once again ask the Ministry for time to figure it out, launch an audit, and objectively assess Bezrukovaʼs activities. Stolyarski and Kuznetsova said in comments to Babel that they did not want to act contrary to the current charter of the supervisory board.
Since the fifth member of the supervisory board Patrick Auroy resigned on January 20, the votes were split in half, and the vote of the chairman Dzhyhyr, became decisive. The supervisor extended Bezrukova’s contract. But the next day, Minister Umerov reported that the weapons purchases had failed, so he dismissed his deputy Dmytro Klimenkov and refused to extend the contract with Maryna Bezrukova.
What is happening in DPA
The Defense Procurement Agency was created in July 2022, modeled after the NATO Support and Supply Agency. Its task is to make weapons purchases for Ukraine transparent and eliminate corruption. Since January 2024, the agency has been headed by Maryna Bezrukova. On January 20, 2025, the Supervisory Board of the Defense Procurement Agency submitted a recommendation to Defense Minister Umerov to extend the contract of the current director of the Agency Maryna Bezrukova for one year.
On January 23, the supervisory board concluded an additional agreement to extend the contract with Bezrukova. However, the next day, Umerov reported the dismissal of his deputy Dmytro Klimenkov and a change in the leadership of the Defense Procurement Agency. Umerov noted that the results of arms purchases were unsatisfactory, so the system needed to be changed. Instead of Bezrukova, the agency will be headed by Arsen Zhumadilov, who heads the State Logistics Operator.
The Ministry of Defense also recalled two state representatives from the supervisory board — Taras Chmut, director of the "Come Back Alive" foundation, and Yuriy Dzyhyr, former Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine. Both voted to extend Bezrukovaʼs contract.
On January 25, DPA reported that it would continue working under Bezrukovaʼs leadership, despite Umerovʼs decision. However, on January 27, Suspilne, citing its own sources, wrote that the minister had initiated an internal investigation into the agency, and Bezrukova had been suspended from work for the duration of the investigation.
The Anti-Corruption Center criticized Umerovʼs decision not to extend Bezrukovaʼs contract. The Executive Director of the Anti-Corruption Center Darya Kalenyuk previously explained that the Supervisory Board has the legal right to extend the contract with the Director of the Defense Procurement Agency without the consent of the Ministry of Defense. Bezrukova herself said that her relations with Defense Minister Rustem Umerov "began to deteriorate" due to the incident with low-quality 120-mm mines.
On January 28, it became known that, at the request of the Central Anti-Corruption Commission, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau launched an investigation into possible abuse of power by Umerov when he fired Bezrukova.
On January 31, the Ministry of Defense announced that from February 1, the Defense Procurement Agency will be headed by Arsen Zhumadilov instead of Marina Bezrukova. Bezrukova appealed to President Volodymyr Zelensky to intervene in the conflict. Zelensky said that Minister Umerov has the right to do everything to avoid slowing down the provision of weapons to the Ukrainian army.
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