The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (the Ukrainian Parliament) appointed Rustem Umyerov as the new Minister of Defense.
As the MP from "Voice" Yaroslav Zheleznyak reported, 338 MPs voted for this decision.
Umerov will replace Oleksiy Reznikov, who was dismissed by the Verkhovna Rada on September 5. Before his appointment, the new head of the Ministry of Defense held the position of the head of the State Property Fund. He worked on the start of the "grain corridor" and also engaged in the exchange of prisoners. In the spring of 2022, Umerov was part of the Ukrainian delegation that took part in several rounds of negotiations with Russia. He was present both at the negotiations in Belarus and Turkey.
- At the beginning of January 2023, a scandal broke out around the Ministry of Defense due to the purchase of food products at several times inflated prices (in particular, eggs at 17 hryvnias per piece). Against this background, the Ministry of Defense decided to publish information about procurement contracts on its own website, as well as compare prices with market prices.
- Because of purchases for the army, three officials of the Ministry of Defense received suspicions, the department updated its personnel. After that, Oleksiy Reznikov approved the composition of the Public Anti-Corruption Council. From April 23, the Prozorro system began to display information on non-armed defense purchases, including data on food services.
- In August, a new scandal arose around the procurement of the Ministry of Defense — due to the purchase of jackets. Journalists reported that the jackets were purchased at three times the inflated price and instead of winter jackets, they ordered summer ones. In the customs documents from the supplier, the jackets were at $29 per unit, and the Ministry of Defense paid $86 per unit. Oleksiy Reznikov replied that the price of $29 never existed and he did not know what the Turkish suppliers wrote in the customs documents. According to him, the military did not complain about the jackets.
- Against the background of these two scandals, Reznikov wrote a statement of resignation, but he previously told the media that he was not holding on to the position. The MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak wrote that Reznikov could be appointed ambassador of Ukraine to Great Britain. In a comment to "Babel", Reznikov said that he was "not aware".