The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the appointment of a new Minister of Defense

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Wednesday approved the appointment of Rustem Umerov as Defense Minister instead of Oleksiy Reznikov, the Ukrinform agency reports.

The candidacy was approved with 338 votes in favour, none against and one abstention, according to a photograph of a voting board published by a Ukrainian agency.

Replacing Reznikov with Umerov was proposed by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday evening.

Zelensky said that the Ministry of Defense needs “new approaches and new ways of interacting with the army, as well as civil society as a whole.”

The change in defense minister came three months after Ukrainian troops launched a counteroffensive against Russian troops, which occupy 20% of the country’s territory.

Recently, several corruption scandals have come to light in the country, in one of which Reznikov is directly involved, connected with a contract for the supply of military equipment concluded with a Turkish company.

“It has been an honor for me to serve the Ukrainian people and work for the Ukrainian army over the past 22 months, the most difficult period in Ukraine’s modern history,” Reznikov said in his resignation letter to parliament.

Rustem Umerov, 41, is a prominent leader of the Crimean Tatar community and has represented Kyiv in delicate dealings with Moscow.

The new defense minister has led the State Property Fund since September 2022, a highly visible position in a country where corruption is endemic.

Ukraine is at war with Russia, which invaded the neighboring country on February 24, 2022.

“This is the highest public office ever held by a Crimean Tatar,” Serhiy Leshchenko, an adviser to the head of the presidential administration in Ukraine, a historic Muslim community on the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, told AFP.