Oleksandr Liev, Acting Head of the Department of Military-Technical Policy, Development of Weapons and Military Equipment of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, has written a resignation letter. Before that, he was accused of pro-Russian views.
He told about this in an interview with "Censor.NET".
"Yesterday I wrote [the Minister of Defense] a message asking him to accept my resignation, and today I wrote a statement," Liev noted.
According to him, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov has not considered the applications yet, as he is on a business trip.
On January 31, Vitaly Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Center, published a column in which he accused Oleksandr Liev of pro-Russian views. He said that Liev received an award from the "Russian Imperial House" in 2013; in 2006 he allegedly coordinated the placement of pickets and roadblocks near the lighthouses, which, according to the distribution of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, were supposed to leave Ukraine, but were illegally held by the Russian Navy, and in March 2014 urged Kyiv to "hear Crimea".
Lievʼs department deals with the purchase of weapons and equipment and also conducts negotiations with international partners regarding military aid to Ukraine.
Liev himself said that before working at the Ministry of Defense, he repeatedly passed the SBU checks and answered all these questions. He emphasized that in the spring of 2014, when he was the Minister of Tourism of Crimea, he spoke about the need to increase the powers of Crimea but as part of Ukraine. But after the self-proclaimed leader of Crimea, Aksyonov, announced on March 4 that the peninsula would be annexed to Russia, Liev left for mainland Ukraine on March 5.
- On January 21, ZN.ua journalists accused the Ministry of Defense of purchasing food products at several times inflated prices. The article stated that prices for products are three times higher than retail prices in Kyiv supermarkets. The agreement worth 13.16 billion hryvnias was concluded on December 23, 2022. It is about providing food to military units stationed in Poltava, Sumy, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, and Cherkasy regions.
- On January 23, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov personally responded to these criticisms; in particular, he explained that the Ministry of Defense does not buy individual products but a complex service — food supply. The Minister explained that the prices of the eight suppliers are different, as well as in supermarket chains because each one has its own specialization and own production of a certain group of goods. Product prices are analyzed by special expert institutions.
- On January 24, it became known that Deputy Minister of Defense Vyacheslav Shapovalov, who was responsible for the rear support of the Armed Forces, resigned. Subsequently, the Minister of Defense Reznikov announced changes in the nutrition of the Armed Forces of Ukraine — it is about a flexible but unified menu system.
- On February 1, former Deputy Minister of Defense Vyacheslav Shapovalov was charged with lobbying for the conclusion of contracts for the supply of products for the military at inflated prices, former head of the Department of State Procurement and Supply of Material Resources Bohdan Khmelnytskyi for the purchase of low-quality body armor, and Deputy Director of "Promoboronexport" Volodymyr Tereshchenko, who concluded a fictitious contract to assess the condition of repaired aircraft components.