Ukraine’s Minister of Defense’s Attempted Staff Clear Out Headed Off – Why?

On the morning of Oct. 1, Ukrainian social media was abuzz with the news that the defence minister, Rustem Umerov, submitted a request to the Cabinet of Ministers to dismiss three of his deputies - Stanislav Haider, Oleksandr Serhii and Yuri Dzhihyr - along with the ministry's state secretary Lyudmyla Daragan.

The news came as a shock because, for several days, those same Telegram channels had predicted that Umerov himself, along with the head of the main intelligence directorate (HUR), Kyrylo Budanov, was about to be removed from office.

A high-ranking Ministry of Defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Kyiv Post, “We were waiting for the minister's resignation; no one knew about the deputies.”

Another Defense Ministry source said everything seemed to have changed at the last moment: “On Sunday, everyone was expecting the minister's resignation. Suddenly, on Monday, everything changed dramatically. One of the deputies, Haider, was fired without any discussion with him at all – they called him after 11 p.m. when he was no longer at work to inform him that he was dismissed.”

Kyiv Post tried to contact Mr Haider for comment, but his cell phone was switched off.

There was no indication why the deputies had been dismissed. Viktor Prudkovskykh, Secretary of the Ministry of Defense’s Public Anti-Corruption Council, who worked with these officials, told Kyiv Post that he did not understand the reasons for the dismissals.

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Prudkovskykh said that, in his view, “Dzhihyr is a highly professional specialist for whom there have been no complaints or reservations about his work. He has established effective tools for carrying out inspections and introducing positive changes.”

He added that he had “only crossed paths with Daragan once, but I was aware there were questions about her work. However, it was unclear [to me] whether the concerns were about her effectiveness or if she was prevented from introducing appropriate changes.”

Prudkovskykh said that the removal of the deputies, as well as rumors about the minister's future, involved concerns plans to merge the Defense Procurement Agency, created to combat corruption in ammunition procurement, with the State Rear Operator, responsible for food and ammunition procurement. The latter had made significant progress in dealing with corruption involving food supplies for the armed forces, as Kyiv Post had previously reported.

“The dismissals resulted from a sharp confrontation caused by the minister's desire to merge the two procurement agencies into one. Now, it seems this idea is being postponed,” Prudkovskykh said.

According to members of the Ministry of Defense Anti-Corruption Council, if the merging of the two independent agencies involved the dismissal of their leaders, it would likely weaken the ongoing fight against corruption.

“The weapons procurement agency is now disrupting the ecosystem of the arms market, and the market does not want to give up its super-profits. Let me remind you that one minor contract with Lviv Arsenal allowed us to recover millions of euros in just a couple of transactions. No one is willing to exit the game here.

“Everyone wants to earn at least a few cents from each cartridge, if not more. When there is no way to get involved, there is a desire to change the situation slightly. They say ‘Well, at least let me make money on drones’... No? Then let’s change everything. It will become one operation,” Tatyana Nikolaenko, a member of the Anti-Corruption Council under the Ministry of Defense, explained.

But this afternoon everything changed when the Cabinet of Ministers met.

It only approved the de facto dismissal of Daragan, vetoed the dismissal of Serhii and Dzhihyr were not dismissed, and immediately reassigned Haider as head of the minister's office.

“However, this is no less surprising, as we do not know what kind of body this office is, what its powers are, or what Haider will do there,” Anastasia Shuba, a member of the Ministry of Defense Anti-Corruption Council told the Kyiv Post.

According to insiders, the Cabinet of Ministers has not yet allowed the minister to carry out the desired rotations within the ministry, but further personnel changes in the leadership of the department may follow. Kyiv Post continues to monitor further developments.