Shortly before the completion of one year from its inception Russian invasion of Ukraine there are the first signs of serious disagreements within the Ukrainian leadership, which created the impression of a broken unity throughout the entire previous period. The role of the negative hero is played by the Minister of Defense. Alexey Reznikovone of the most prominent defenders of the Ukrainian cause in the international media, who fell out of favor after his deputy minister was forced to resign over a corruption case involving inflated ration bills for soldiers on the front lines.

On Sunday, David Arakhamia, a spokesman for the parliamentary presidential party Servant of the People, announced Reznikov’s replacement at the defense ministry with military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov, adding that the outgoing minister had been appointed to head the military industry. Commenting on the scenarios of his move, Reshnikov said that any decisions are within the exclusive competence of the president. Vladimir Zelensky.

Arakhamia hit back yesterday, saying there would be no replacement for Reshnikov this week as decisions were delayed. Another representative of the presidential party, Mariana Bezula, argued that the decision to postpone was taken because of the “risk to the system as a whole” in view of the significant NATO Ministerial Meeting coming week. Until yesterday, Zelensky did not speak out on this issue. The Ukrainian president has been campaigning against corruption for two weeks now.

An additional factor of concern for the Ukrainian leadership is the threat of delays in the delivery of German Leopard tanks. Germany’s initial plan to collect enough tanks from a number of allied nations that have the Leopard is running into trouble as several governments have yet to make their decisions. For example, Finland fears that sending German tanks to Kyiv would create dangerous gaps in its own line of defense against Russia. Only Poland and Portugal committed themselves to sending a certain number of Leopards to Kyiv. However, in Berlin, government spokesman Wolfgang Buechner said that Germany intended to supply 14 Leopard tanks.

The delivery of Leopards is delayed, and Russian bombardments are destroying towns and villages in eastern Ukraine.

Meanwhile, fighting rages on the eastern front, where the Russians are recording their first, albeit limited, territorial gains after six months of setbacks and retreats. The Ukrainian governor of Donetsk, Pavel Kirilenko, said that “the struggle for control over the region is escalating” as “the Russians send new units to the front and raze towns and villages to the ground.” In the neighboring Lugansk region, Russian shelling has halted for the last 24 hours, but military analysts suggest that this is part of the preparation of the Russian army for an imminent large-scale offensive on the southern front, in the Zaporozhye region. provinces.

Challenge to Prigogine

In a purely propaganda video circulating on social media, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner group that played a central role in the battle for Bakhmut, is shown in the cockpit of a Su-24 bomber, from where he challenged Zelensky to a dogfight. . “Tomorrow I will fly a MiG-29. If you want, let’s meet in the air. If you win, you will receive Artemovsk (Bakhmut). If not, then we will reach the Dnieper, ”says Prigozhin.