Ukrainian defence minister to be ‘moved on’ by Zelensky’s party

Kyiv: President Volodymyr Zelensky’s political party says it will move to replace Ukraine’s defence minister, as fierce fighting rages in the east amid what Ukrainian officials say is the beginning of a new Russian offensive.

Oleksii Reznikov’s fate has been the subject of increasing speculation amid a growing scandal about financial impropriety within the ministry and an accompanying government investigation into corruption.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov.Credit:AP

Davyd Arakhamia, the head of Zelensky’s Servant of the People party in parliament, said on Sunday (Kyiv time) that Reznikov would be transferred to the leadership of another ministry and that Major General Kyrylo Budanov, the current military intelligence chief, would replace him.

Reznikov has not been directly implicated in any wrongdoing, and Arakhamia did not link the move to concerns about the corruption scandal. Reznikov would become the highest ranking official in Zelensky’s government to be reassigned in the nearly 12 months since Russia’s full-scale invasion began.

There was no immediate comment from Zelenskyy or from Reznikov, who earlier had addressed reports that he might be replaced by saying that only one person – Zelenskyy – could decide if he stayed.

“No official remains in office forever. No one,” Reznikov said during a news conference. He added, “I will do what the head of state suggests to me.”

US President Joe Biden participates in a meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, second from left, and Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov in Warsaw in march 2022. Credit:AP

The expected shake-up at the top of Ukraine’s military establishment comes as Kyiv’s troops are under increasing pressure in the east, with fighting particularly fierce around the city of Bakhmut.

A Russian paramilitary leader said Ukrainian forces there were defending “every street, every house, every stairwell,” as they waged an increasingly desperate effort to deny Moscow its first significant battlefield success in months.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner private military company, whose forces have helped lead Russia’s brutal campaign in Bakhmut, said that Ukrainian troops were “fighting to the last”, denying reports on social media that Ukraine’s forces were withdrawing from the key city in the eastern Donetsk region.

Ukrainian servicemen fire by a Finnish 120 mm mortar towards Russian positions at the frontline near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine in mid January.Credit:AP

“The Armed Forces of Ukraine are not retreating anywhere,” Prigozhin said in a statement posted by one of his companies on Telegram, the social messaging app.

Reznikov told the news conference hat 500 Russian soldiers were being killed or wounded daily in their drive to take Bakhmut. Ukraine’s losses were significantly fewer, he added, without offering details.

It was not possible to independently verify either side’s account of the fighting.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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