Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov submits resignation

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov announced he had submitted his resignation to the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s Parliament, on Monday.

The move came following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s announcement that he had chosen Rustem Umerov as the country’s new defence minister in a statement issued on Sunday.

Umerov, who currently heads the State Property Fund of Ukraine, must now be confirmed by the Ukrainian parliament.

“Rustem Umerov should lead the Ministry now. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine knows this person well, and Mr. Umerov does not need any additional introductions. I expect the Parliament to support this candidate,” Zelensky wrote in a Telegram post.

The Defence Ministry needed “new approaches and other means of interaction with both the military and society at large”, Zelenksy added.

Reznikov, who spent 550 days in office, said that it had been “an honour to serve the Ukrainian people and work for the Ukrainian Army for the last 22 months, the toughest period of Ukraine’s modern history”.

Umerov is a Ukrainian MP who was also a member of the team that attempted to negotiate with Russia in the weeks following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russian news website Agentstvo reported that Umerov had been poisoned while attending negotiations with Russia last March, though Umerov has denied the claims.