Former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ilya Kiva said that the head of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Alexei Reznikov, wrote a letter of resignation. He wrote about this, citing a source, on February 5 in his Telegram channel.
“In the near future, he should be handed a suspicion,” Kiva continued.
According to him, after Reznikov, the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, will leave his post.
“Everyone understands that it is Yermak who is the leader and inspirer of a group of swindlers and embezzlers of state funds in the Zelensky team,” the politician specified.
Earlier, on February 1, Verkhovna Rada deputy Oleksiy Goncharenko said that Reznikov could leave the post of Minister of Defense of Ukraine and head the Ministry of Justice. According to him, who will take the place of the head of the Ministry of Defense is not yet clear.
Ukraine has been rocked by a string of corruption scandals in recent weeks. Against this background, on February 3, the head of the faction of the pro-presidential Servant of the People party in the Verkhovna Rada, David Arakhamia, called on the country’s Security Service (SBU) to act in such a way as not to disrupt the normal functioning of the country’s defense ministry.
On the same day, it was reported that the SBU had revealed another scheme for the theft of funds for $3.2 million allocated for the food of Ukrainian military personnel. As part of this scheme, instead of deliveries to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), its participants withdrew funds into the shadows through a number of affiliated companies.
The day before, a court in Kyiv arrested for two months the former Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Vyacheslav Shapovalov, suspected of corruption schemes in the procurement of ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Earlier, on January 25, Bogdan Khmelnytsky, head of the public procurement department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, was fired. A day earlier, Shapovalov, who was responsible for the logistics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, resigned. This happened against the backdrop of a scandal with the purchase of products for the Armed Forces of Ukraine at inflated prices.
Prior to that, on January 21, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence summoned the leadership of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine to a meeting after reports of food purchases for the Ukrainian army at inflated prices.
It was reported that the department signed a contract with a certain Active Company for the provision of catering services for military units for 2023, located away from areas of active hostilities. The contract amount exceeds $371 million.
The prices for foodstuffs specified in the contract turned out to be at least two to three times higher and do not correspond to market prices even in retail trade.
