Defense minister may be replaced

Reznikov is subject of speculation amid scandal; officials say Russia starting new offensive

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s political party said on Sunday that it would move to replace Ukraine’s defense minister, as fierce fighting raged in the east amid what Ukrainian officials say is the beginning of a new Russian offensive.

The fate of the defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, has been the subject of increasing speculation amid a growing scandal about financial impropriety within the ministry and an accompany ing government investigation into corruption.

Dav yd Arakhamia, the head of Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party in Parliament, said Sunday that Reznikov would be transferred to the leadership of another ministry and that Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the current military intelligence chief, would replace him.

Reznikov has not been directly implicated in any wrongdoing, and Arakhamia did not link the move to concerns about the corruption scandal. Reznikov would become the highest ranking official in Zelenskyy’s government to be reassigned in the nearly 12 months since Russia’s full- scale invasion began.

There was no immediate comment from Zelenskyy. Reznikov earlier Sunday had addressed reports that he might be replaced by saying that only one person — Zelenskyy — can decide if he stays.

“No official remains in office forever. No one,” Reznikov said during a news conference. He added, “I will do what the head of state suggests to me.”

In an interview published by ICTV, a Ukrainian TV channel, he also said the news that he would be transferred to another ministry had been a surprise, and that he would refuse it because he did not have the expertise.

The expected shake-up at the top of Ukraine’s military establishment comes as Kyiv’s troops are under increasing pressure in the east, with fighting particularly fierce around the city of Bakhmut.

A Russian paramilitary leader said Ukrainian forces there were defending “every street, every house, every stairwell,” as they waged an increasingly desperate effort to deny Moscow its first significant battlefield success in months.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner private military company, whose forces have helped lead Russia’s brutal campaign in Bakhmut, said that Ukrainian troops were “fighting to the last,” denying reports on social media that Ukraine’s forces were withdrawing from the key city in the eastern Donetsk region.

“The Armed Forces of Ukraine are not retreating anywhere,” Prigozhin said in a statement posted by one of his companies on Telegram, the social messaging app.

As Russia pours more troops into the battle in eastern Ukraine, its Defense Ministry claimed on Sunday that “offensive operations” had helped its forces gain “more advantageous lines and positions” around Donetsk. But there were growing signs that the bitter fighting was exacting an enormous toll on both sides.

Reznikov told the news conference on Sunday that 500 Russian soldiers were being killed or wounded daily in their drive to take Bakhmut. Ukraine’s losses were significantly fewer, he added, without offering details.

It was not possible to independently verify either side’s account of the fighting. But Reznikov’s tally roughly matched that of U. S. officials, who believe hundreds of Russian soldiers are being killed or injured every day as the Kremlin rushes many more men — including lightly trained new recruits and ex- convicts — to the front line. Ukrainian forces have at times suffered similar losses in Bakhmut, U.S. officials say.

Reznikov acknowledged that the intense fighting was taking a toll on Ukrainian soldiers on the front line and that keeping up morale after a year of war was a “very serious challenge.”

“People are under crazy stress day and night,” he said.

Since last summer the Kremlin’s forces have bombarded Bakhmut, a city that Moscow sees as critical to achieving Russian President Vladimir Putin’s objective of capturing all of Donbas, which includes Donetsk and the neighboring Luhansk region. Ukraine has warned that Russia could be starting a renewed offensive in the east as its troops seek to give Putin a victory to mark the anniversary of his invasion, on Feb. 24.

Zelenskyy warned in his nightly address Sunday that Russia wanted to do something “symbolic” this month, to “try to avenge their last year’s defeats.”

After losing significant ground to Ukrainian counterattacks last fall, Russia has escalated its campaign in the east, bringing in more troops and intensifying its artillery strikes. Russian forces have slowly surrounded Bakhmut on three sides and cut off many of the roads leading into and out of the city. That has left Ukrainian forces with one road as their last major supply line — or potential escape route.

“Bakhmut is increasingly isolated,” Britain’s defense intelligence agency reported Sunday.

Zelenskyy acknowledged

Sunday night that Ukraine was under increased pressure across the front line, and said conditions in Donetsk were “very difficult.”

“There are fierce battles,” he said.

Reznikov said that as more Russian troops arrived on the front in recent weeks — many likely drawn from Putin’s recent call-up of 300,000 reservists — Russia’s forces have changed their tactics, attempting to overwhelm Ukrainian defensive lines by deploying wave upon wave of small assault groups.

Ukraine also has a large military presence in the region around Bakhmut, with large troop transports and armored vehicles crowding the roads as Ukrainian forces mount a defense that has forced Russia to commit significant resources to the fighting.

“The situation remains complex but under control,” Reznikov said. He described Bakhmut as a fortress that holds great symbolism for Ukraine, and said that any decision on a tactical withdrawal would be made by military generals.

But some Ukrainian soldiers deployed there are increasingly pessimistic about the fate of the city. They are killing Russians, one soldier recently told The New York Times, but not fast enough.

Reznikov also said that Moscow remained intent on expanding the territory it controlled in southern Ukraine to tighten its grip on Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula it illegally captured in 2014, and was focusing its troop buildup on the east and south.

But he said that Ukraine had not seen signs that Russia was preparing to mount a new campaign aimed at the northeast, where Moscow’s troops were driven out amid a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive in the fall.