KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned Sunday that protection minister Oleksii Reznikov shall be changed this week with Rustem Umerov, a Crimean Tatar lawmaker.
Zelenskyy made the announcement on his official Telegram account, writing that new management was wanted after Umerov “has gone by way of greater than 550 days of full-scale conflict.”
Later in his nightly tackle, Zelenskyy mentioned he believes “that the Ministry wants new approaches and completely different codecs of interplay each with the army and with society.”
“The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is effectively acquainted with this particular person, and Umerov doesn’t require further introductions. I anticipate assist for this candidacy from parliament,” the president advised the nation.
Umerov, 41, a politician with the opposition Holos occasion, has served as head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine since September 2022. He was concerned within the change of prisoners of conflict, political prisoners, kids and civilians, in addition to the evacuation of civilians from occupied territories. Umerov was additionally a part of the Ukrainian delegation in negotiations with Russia over the U.N.-backed grain deal.
In August, a scandal arose across the Ministry of Protection’s procurement of army jackets. Ukrainian investigative journalists reported that the supplies had been bought at a worth thrice increased than regular and that as a substitute of winter jackets, summer season ones had been ordered. Within the customs paperwork from the provider, the jackets had been priced at $29 per unit, however the Ministry of Protection paid $86 per unit. Reznikov denied the allegations throughout a information convention final week.
Zelenskyy’s announcement got here after two folks had been hospitalized following a 3½-hour Russian drone barrage Sunday on the Reni seaport in Ukraine’s Odesa area, officers mentioned.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is because of meet Monday together with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to debate the resumption of meals shipments from Ukraine beneath a Black Sea grain settlement that Moscow broke off from in July.
Russian forces fired 25 Iranian-made Shahed drones alongside the Danube River within the early hours of Sunday, 22 of which had been shot down by air defenses, the Ukrainian air pressure mentioned on Telegram.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ‘s chief of workers, Andriy Yermak, described the assault as a part of a Russian drive “to impress a meals disaster and starvation on the earth.”
Russia’s Protection Ministry mentioned in a press release that the assault was geared toward gasoline storage amenities used to produce army tools.
Putin and Erdogan’s long-awaited assembly is because of happen in Sochi on Russia’s southwest coast on Monday.Turkish officers have confirmed that the pair will focus on renewing the Black Sea grain initiative, which the Kremlin pulled out of six weeks in the past.
The deal — brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July 2022 — had allowed almost 33 million metric tons (36 million tons) of grain and different commodities to depart three Ukrainian ports safely regardless of Russia’s conflict.
Nonetheless, Russia broke away from the settlement after claiming {that a} parallel deal promising to take away obstacles to Russian exports of meals and fertilizer hadn’t been honored.
