NABU Searches Ex-Defense Minister Reznikov

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau has searched the home of former Defense Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov. The search is likely related to the case of purchasing food for the army at inflated prices.

This was reported by "Ukrainska Pravda" and "Dzerkalo Tyzhnia" with reference to their own sources.

According to "Dzerkal Tyzhnia", the searches were likely conducted as part of a case involving the purchase of products for the army at inflated prices. It is unknown exactly what documents were seized.

Liga.net, citing its own source, reports that Reznikov's documents and phone were "not found or seized." NABU is not commenting on this situation.

Alexey Reznikov is a suspect in the EBK database.

Let us remind you that there were several scandals during Reznikov's term. The first of them was the so-called "Eggs at 17".

Then the publication "Dzerkalo Tyzhnia" published an article in which it was claimed that with the participation of the Ministry of Defense, funds for the purchase of food for the Armed Forces of Ukraine were being embezzled. Thus, according to the publication, the department contracted eggs at 17 UAH per piece, while the retail price in the store was about 7 UAH per piece. According to the publication, the prices for the most popular foods in the Ministry of Defense agreement turned out to be 2–3 times overstated.

Then several officials were declared suspicious. In January, the head of the Servant of the People faction, David Arakhamia, announced that Reznikov would be transferred to the position of Minister for Strategic Industries, and the Ministry of Defense would be headed by the head of intelligence, Kirill Budanov. However, the very next day, Arakhamia announced that there would be no change in the leadership of the Ministry of Defense.

The next scandal also began after the investigation of "Dzerkal Tyzhnia". The publication stated that the Ministry of Defense had signed a contract with a Turkish company for winter clothing. The price of the contract, according to journalists, was three times higher than the initial cost of the jackets. And the clothing itself turned out to be not winter, but summer.

Reznikov held a press conference where he showed the jackets from that batch and explained that they couldn't be summer jackets, because "in winter, 140,000 soldiers would have told us about it."

After the publication of this investigation, Ukrainska Pravda reported that Zelensky was looking for a candidate to replace Reznikov. On September 3, Zelensky announced his intention to replace Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov with Rustem Umerov, who heads the State Property Fund.

On September 5, the Rada dismissed Oleksiy Reznikov from the post of Minister of Defense.

Recall, we previously wrote that the HACC left the suspicion against Prosecutor Maksymenko in force.

We also reported that the HACC did not suspend Deputy Prime Minister Chernyshov.