Defense Minister

Oleksiy Reznikov

disclosed the details of the conversation with President Volodymyr Zelensky after a series of scandals surrounding the Ministry of Defense, and commented on the dismissal of former deputy Vyacheslav Shapovalov, who was responsible for the rear support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and is involved in a criminal case regarding the purchase of products for the military at inflated prices.

Oleksiy Reznikov, the head of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said this in an interview with LIGA.net.

According to the minister, after a series of media scandals regarding the Ministry of Defense and information about his probable resignation, he had a conversation with the head of state.

According to Reznikov, the president asked him to return to the reforms they had agreed upon at the first meeting, which had been delayed by the full-scale Russian invasion.

"He (Zelensky. - Ed.) honestly said: "Alexei, the tension is understandable, but no one canceled the reforms you and I agreed on during the first conversation (when he offered me this position).

You left clear priorities, but you pushed them too far.

Return to them," the head of the Ministry of Defense recalled.

Regarding the president's trust in him, Reznikov said that he not only sees it, but feels it.

In addition, the minister denied the journalist's words that he is currently on a probationary period with the president.

"No, it didn't sound like that," Reznikov assured.

In addition, he emphasized that he did not write a resignation letter, the president did not submit a submission to the parliament, and the resolution on his dismissal was not registered in the Council.

Speaking about the scandalous dismissal of Shapovalov's ex-deputy, Reznikov noted that he admits "that he made a personnel mistake" if the court finds Shapovalov guilty.

"According to the Constitution, we have the concept of individual responsibility for committing a crime. If the court finds him guilty, I admit that I made a personnel mistake. But today I provide for the Armed Forces. I have 800 people in the ministry, and much more in state enterprises. All living people. If every time there is a violation, we fire the minister, I think we will not go far with you. Let's then replace the mayors, remove the head of the parliament, because someone from their team messed up," said Reznikov.

Regarding the articles that incriminate Shapovalova, the head of the Ministry of Defense said the following: "I am a lawyer and my bible is the Constitution, in which the principle of innocence is written. Only a court, not a Lynch court, can find a person guilty. According to my information, he is not indicted for anything associated with food. He has another charge, there is nothing corrupt there. No eggs, no carrots, no cabbage...".

Regarding the suspicions of the SBI, whose investigators believe that Shapovalov allegedly lobbied for the purchase of low-quality bulletproof vests and helmets worth more than UAH 1 billion, Reznikov emphasized: "I want to wait for the completion of the investigation and hear the verdict of the court. Because it may also be acquittal." 

"Let them figure it out. But I know for sure that the contracts that are the subject of the study are dated March 2022. And I want to ask: where was everyone in March 2022? When there are zero [body armor] in warehouses, and hundreds had to be brought thousands," said the minister.

Scandals in the Ministry of Defense

At the end of 2022, documents appeared on the Internet, according to which

 officials of the Ministry of Defense allegedly concluded an agreement for 13.16 billion UAH for the purchase of food

 for the Armed Forces at two or three times more expensive than in Kyiv stores.

Against the backdrop of the scandal over purchases at inflated prices, Deputy Minister

 Vyacheslav Shapovalov

and director of the procurement department Bohdan Khmelnytskyi resigned.

Subsequently, 

the Ministry of Defense released information on the procurement of food for the Armed Forces.

On February 1, the SBU 

handed over suspicions to Khmelnytskyi and Shapovalov

.

After that, People's Deputy Yaroslav Zhelezniak reported on the possible dismissal of the Minister of Defense.

The head of the "Servant of the People" faction, David Arakhamiya, said that they say 

Reznikov will be transferred to the position of minister

 for strategic industries.

Commenting on this, the head of the Ministry of Defense himself stated that "no official is in the chair forever."

If he is fired, he will support the successor.

Subsequently 

, Reznikov thanked everyone for their constructive criticism

.

And he also said that 

more than 600 violators among the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defense

 are already responsible for their crimes.

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