The resignations of officials in Ukraine will continue. Such a statement was made by adviser to the office of the President of the country Mikhail Podolyak on Sunday, February 5.
“This (resignation. – Ed.) will continue. If you started the process and said A, you should say both B and C. People who hold positions should be transparent, not only efficient, professional. These processes will continue, no one will be able to be in a privileged position,” he said on the air of the all-Ukrainian news telethon.
Podolyak also spoke about the possible resignation of Defense Minister Alexei Reznikov. He said that it is necessary to find a candidate who can take over the issues of negotiations on the supply of weapons to Kyiv.
Earlier, on February 1, Oleksiy Goncharenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, said that Reznikov could resign from 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 clear.
On February 5, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine himself noted that he was ready for any development of events. At the same time, earlier that day, former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Ilya Kiva said that Reznikov had already written a letter of resignation.
Ukraine has been rocked by a string of corruption scandals in recent weeks. It turned out that officials, including the country’s Ministry of Defense, were stealing money allocated for the purchase of food for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (APU).
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 Ministry of Defense.
At the same time, it was reported that the SBU revealed another scheme for the theft of funds for $3.2 million allocated for the food of Ukrainian servicemen.
On February 2, 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.
Prior to that, on January 21, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence summoned the leadership of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to a meeting after media reports about 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 or three times higher and did not correspond to market prices even in retail trade.
