Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed six top officials inside the Ministry of Defense on Monday in what appears to be a continuing crackdown amid reports of corruption inside the country’s defense establishment.
The firings come ahead of Mr. Zelenskyy’s much-anticipated visit this week to the United States. He is scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Tuesday and meet in Washington with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Kyiv is under increasing pressure to show progress in its counteroffensive in the south and east and to ease doubts in Washington and other Western capitals that billions of dollars in military and economic aid are being spent wisely.
The Defense Ministry shake-up was announced Monday on the Telegram social media site of top Ukrainian Cabinet official Oleh Nemchinov. Weeks earlier, Mr. Zelenskyy replaced Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, who had led the agency since Russia invaded more than 18 months ago, with Rustem Umerov, a Crimean Tatar lawmaker.
Officials in Kyiv did not formally announce the reason for the personnel moves, although speculation about a personnel purge has swirled for several months.
The dismissed deputy ministers include Hanna Maliar, who has emerged in recent months as one of the government’s most visible figures on social media reporting on the status of Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russia. The others were Deputy Ministers Volodymyr Havrylov, Rostyslav Zamlynski, Denys Sharapov, Andriy Shevchenko and Vitaliy Deynega.
Shortly before she was dismissed, Ms. Maliar said on Telegram that Russian forces continue searching for weak points in Ukraine’s defense but Ukrainian troops have repelled attacks in the Luhansk region. Moscow’s troops have also failed to break through Ukrainian defenses in the Bakhmut area.
“The enemy is on the defensive in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson [regions and] continues shelling,” Ms. Maliar wrote. “The defense forces repelled enemy attacks [and] we continue to conduct an offensive operation in the direction of Melitopol.”
Ms. Maliar and the other deputy ministers resigned voluntarily at the request of Ukraine’s newly appointed defense minister, according to the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper. On Facebook, Mr. Umerov compared the dismissals to a bureaucratic reset as he installed his new team.
“Rebooting. We started. We continue. Ministry continues to work as usual,” Mr. Umerov wrote.
On the offensive
In a counteroffensive launched this spring, Ukrainian troops have made steady but slow progress against heavily dug-in Russian forces arrayed along a more than 900-mile front line.
The Biden administration is lobbying Congress for additional U.S. funding for Ukraine. Lawmakers are debating Mr. Biden’s latest request to provide Kyiv with another $24 billion in military and humanitarian assistance.
SEE ALSO: Ukrainian President Zelenskyy to meet with Senate amid talks on more military aid
The U.S. has contributed about $70 billion to Ukraine’s effort to fight off the Russian invasion launched in February 2022. The financial support has been met with increasing resistance from some Republicans on Capitol Hill, particularly in the House. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, has balked at writing what he called “a blank check” to support Kyiv.
On Sunday, Mr. Zelenskyy said he was grateful for the financial backing from Washington but warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fight wasn’t only with Ukraine.
“If Ukraine falls, Putin will surely go further. What will the United States of America do when Putin reaches the Baltic states [or] when he reaches the Polish border?” Mr. Zelenskyy said Sunday on the CBS program “60 Minutes.” “The whole world [has to] decide whether we want to stop Putin or whether we want to start the beginning of a world war.”
On Tuesday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley will host the latest meeting of the “contact group” of Ukrainian allies at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. They will join civilian and uniformed military officials from about 50 other countries to discuss and coordinate international support for Ukraine.
Even as Ukraine continues its shake-up of military personnel, the top officer in NATO will remain on the job for another six months, the alliance announced over the weekend.
On Saturday, the NATO Chiefs of Defense agreed to keep Adm. Rob Bauer as chair of the NATO Military Committee until his replacement, Adm. Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, completes his assignment as Italy’s defense chief.
“I am honored and humbled by the continued trust that the Allied Chiefs of Defense have placed in me,” said Adm. Bauer, former chief of the Netherlands’ armed forces.
Both sides claimed to have scored successes on the battlefield as heavy fighting continued across the front in the east and south, according to The Associated Press and other news agencies.
Russian officials said their forces struck critical Ukrainian facilities in air attacks overnight, hitting an arsenal of British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles and depleted uranium ammunition along with electronic intelligence centers and training facilities for Ukrainian military scouts, AP reported.
Fierce fighting was reported as the recent Ukrainian capture of two strategic villages put the Russian-held city of Bakhmut back in the firing line.
Ukrainian commander Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi said on the Telegram app that Russia’s defensive lines around Bakhmut — the scene of one of the war’s most intense battles this year — are in jeopardy.
“As a result of our troops’ successful actions, the enemy’s defensive line — which it tried to close by throwing all available reserves into battle — was breached,” the general said Monday.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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