NEW GUARD

Ukraine Axes 6 Deputy Defense Ministers in ‘Complete Overhaul’

The move comes less than two weeks after the defense chief resigned amid corruption allegations at the Defense Ministry.

Ukraine’s government dismissed six deputy defense ministers on Monday, including Hanna Maliar, who had delivered frequent statements to the public on the country’s war with Russia. The reshuffle took place less than two weeks after Rustem Umerov became Ukraine’s new defense minister, replacing Oleksii Reznikov amid corruption allegations in the Ministry of Defense. “Rebooting,” Umerov wrote in a Facebook post. “We started. We continue. Ministry continues to work as usual. The rest of the news will come later.” “A complete overhaul is underway,” a source close to the ministry told Ukrainska Pravda, which reported that the deputy ministers had resigned voluntarily and new candidates were currently being considered.