A wave of resignations and dismissals hit the Kiev regime yesterday, starting with Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the Deputy Chief of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Presidential Office, who confirmed his resignation this morning. The administrative heads of Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, and the Ukrainian-controlled parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhya are also reported to be going with him.
This followed reports yesterday of Zelensky announcing personnel changes in the wake of a corruption scandal that emerged over the weekend. Reuters reported yesterday that anti-corruption police said on Sunday that they had detained Vasyl Lozynsky, a Deputy Infrastructure Minister, on suspicion of receiving a $400,000 kickback over the import of generators last September, an allegation the minister denies. Separately, a newspaper investigation accused the Defence Ministry of overpaying suppliers for soldiers’ food. The supplier has said it made a technical mistake and that no money had changed hands.
“There are already personnel decisions — some today, some tomorrow — regarding officials at various levels in ministries and other central government structures, as well as in the regions and in law enforcement,” Zelensky said during his nightly TV address. He also announced that government officials would be banned from traveling abroad, except when they were on state business.
Aside from Tymoshenko, The Associated Press reported this morning, Deputy Defense Minister Viacheslav Shapovalov and Deputy Prosecutor General Oleksiy Symonenko also resigned.
In a posting late yesterday sourced to the Strana, Slavyangrad, reports that the energy, sports, and strategic energy ministers have also all resigned. They also say that although Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov was targeted for dismissal, the “servants of the people"—that is, Zelensky’s party—took him under their protection. Reznikov is known to have a close relationship with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
While Reznikov has averted any action against him, his deputy defense minister, Vyacheslav Shapovalov, fell on his sword. The Defense Ministry statement read: “Vyacheslav Shapovalov, who was in charge of the logistics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, asked to be dismissed so as not to pose a threat to a stable supply of the military as a result of a campaign of accusations related to food procurement.” It went on to call the allegations “unreasonable and baseless” while lauding Shapovalov’s resignation as an “honorable deed in line with traditions of European and democratic politics.”