A major scandal has erupted at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, centered around Defense Minister Rustem Umerov’s attempt to remove Maryna Bezrukova, head of the Defense Procurement Agency (DPA), despite the supervisory board’s decision to extend her contract. The conflict has raised concerns among Ukraine’s international partners about the stability of defense procurement reforms during wartime.
“When I was invited to work, no one told me I would be a figurehead. When I was invited to work, I was promised support and transparent rules of the game. That’s why I came here,” Maryna Bezrukova told Hromadske on 20 January 2025.
Just four days later, Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov announced her dismissal as head of the DPA despite the supervisory board’s vote to extend her contract — and despite having no powers to do so. The minister also removed two authoritative state representatives from the supervisory board and announced that Arsen Zhumadilov, who already heads another procurement agency, would take over the DPA.
He accused the DPA of “political games,” “contract leaks,” and failing to meet key performance indicators.
The statement came at the height of a scandal that has rocked Ukraine’s defense establishment and raised concerns among international partners about the future of procurement reform as Russia’s war approaches its third year.
Bezrukova claims that Umerov’s decree is null and void and that she remains head of the DPA. The agency supports her and says it will continue working under Bezrukova’s leadership.
In a statement on 25 January, the DPA said that Bezrukova’s replacement with Zhumadilov is “a direct manifestation of pressure on the Supervisory Board and an attempt to replace independent corporate governance with direct control.
“This is an unprecedented violation of all previous agreements between the Ministry of Defense and civil society and international partners,” the DPA wrote.
The scandal creates dangerous uncertainty for Ukraine’s crucial weapons procurement amid Russian creeping advances on the frontline.
If parliament and Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy do not intervene, the situation may lead to the return of direct ministerial control over defense procurement, increasing corruption risks and reversing a year of progress.
Why the Defense Procurement Agency was created
Ukraine’s journey towards reforming its defense procurement system began long before the current war. Plagued by corruption and inefficiency, the old system relied heavily on intermediaries, leading to inflated prices and delays in essential supplies.
The situation came to a head in 2023, when scandals involving overpriced food supplies and substandard winter jackets for the military erupted, ultimately leading to the dismissal of then-Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov and his replacement by Rustem Umerov.
In response to these challenges and with a strong push from international partners, Ukraine embarked on a path of reform. The DPA, modeled after NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), was established in 2023 to ensure transparent and efficient procurement of weapons and military equipment.
It received full powers in early 2024 when both domestic procurement and imports were transferred to the Agency from the Ministry’s department.
Currently, the DPA manages funds both from Ukrainian taxpayer money and from Western funds invested into Ukrainian defense production under the “Danish model.”
For example, the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense submit to the Defense Procurement Agency a list of types and volumes of ammunition needed. Then, the Defense Procurement Agency analyzes the market according to commercial proposals it receives and finds out which suppliers and manufacturers can cover the need in time and at the best prices.
The supervisory board and the ministry oversee the agency but can’t contract themselves, which drastically decreases corruption risks.
The key to the success of the reform is the independence of the agency and its director so that the Ministry can’t interfere in the process of contracting.
If the ministry sees justified shortcomings in the agency’s work, the supervisory board, not the ministry, decides whether the agency works efficiently and whether the current director should be fired and replaced. This is a staple of corporate governance that is also enshrined in the Ukrainian law “On Management of State Property Objects.”
This underlines that, in firing Bezrukova, Minister Umerov overstepped his powers — only the supervisory board can do that.
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Main achievement: cutting out middlemen in defense procurement
When Bezrukova took the helm of the DPA in early 2024, she faced a daunting task.
In an interview with military activist Maria Berlinska in August 2024, she revealed that “in the first quarter of 2024, we signed more contracts than in the entire previous year.” Her team often worked from early morning until midnight, rapidly building relationships with manufacturers while restructuring the agency’s operations.
The results were documented in the agency’s public reports.
Under her leadership, the DPA reduced prices for critical ammunition compared to 2023: 155-mm shells by 15%, 152-mm by 23%, and 125-mm by 16%. The agency cut out middlemen dramatically – where intermediaries once controlled 82% of contracts in 2023, that number dropped to 12% in 2024. The direct contrast led to a dramatic price decrease for critical weapons and ammunition.
As well, the agency established direct contracts with manufacturers from 13 countries and helped build up Ukraine’s domestic defense industry, with Ukrainian manufacturers now producing over 90% of military drones.
Pressure to conclude a contract for defective 120mm mines was the breaking point
The confrontation had been building since September 2024, when leading civil society leaders published a scathing critique of the ministry’s operations, painting a picture of a ministry struggling with inefficiency and disorganization.
The campaign against Umerov accelerated when military activist Maria Berlinska slammed Umerov’s management style, describing a “chaotic” ministry where “subordinates spend months not understanding what their leader is saying and are afraid to ask questions.” She characterized his leadership style as an “eastern court” where “there is a ruler who must be flattered, worshipped, brought gifts – results. Today’s requirements are one thing, tomorrow another – because the mood changes.”
The activists continued their criticism through December, deriding Umerov’s domain as a “ministry of sabotage.” The ministry’s response was to limit independent oversight: in December 2024, it quietly amended the DPA’s charter, attempting to limit the authority of its newly appointed supervisory board, in violation of the law.
The amended Charter required the Ministry to approve firing or appointing a director and introduced other provisions limiting the authority of the Supervisory Board.
This put reform and the independence of the Agency and Supervisory Board at risk.
The Board condemned the move and demanded the statute be revised. The issue was even considered by the parliamentary anti-corruption committee on 16 January 2025, where most MPs also condemned the unilateral changes to the charter as unlawful. However, the Ministry did not revise its decision.
The tension reached its breaking point on 24 January 2025, when Minister Umerov announced Bezrukova’s dismissal and removed two well-esteemed state representatives, Taras Chmut and Yuriy Dzhyhyr, from the supervisory board. He named Arsen Zhumadilov, head of another procurement agency, as her replacement.
In an interview with Censor.NET, Bezrukova revealed increasing pressure from ministry officials to sign specific contracts and extend delivery terms for certain suppliers.
Bezrukova says that in February, the Ministry pressured her to sign a contract with one domestic producer of 120mm mortar shells despite the high risks of the contract. As a result, the mortar shells were supplied with a delay, and part of them were defective.
In the summer of 2024, the Deputy Minister asked her to prolong the terms of the supply, which she refused to do as she insisted all manufacturers should have equal conditions and equally pay fines for delay. After that, she says, her relationship with Umerov went downhill.
Was Bezrukova ineffective?
Minister Umerov didn’t explain why Bezrukova and the Agency failed to perform the assigned tasks, limiting himself to emotional claims.
However, MP Ustinova came out with criticism of Bezrukova. Many of her arguments appear to be false. The claim that the DPA allegedly failed to procure weapons for its entire budget and lost UAH 2.5 billion is not true — this sum, constituting 0.8% of the budget, could not be paid in 2024 for technical reasons and will be transferred to 2025, a DPA employee who asked to remain anonymous told Euromaidan Press.
Also false is Ustinova’s claim that merely one person contracts FPV drones in the agency. In reality, 23 in a dedicated UAV office do, the employee added.
We reached out to Minister Umerov for a comment, but did not get a response by publication time.
The stakes: foreign procurement of Ukrainian weapons and Ukraine’s defense capabilities
According to the same Censor.net interview, multiple embassies expressed concern about the situation before Umerov’s announcement. Some partner countries are reportedly considering withdrawing funding. For Ukraine’s Western partners, particularly the United States, the agency’s reforms represented a crucial step toward NATO integration and fighting corruption in defense procurement.
Anastasia Radina, head of the parliament’s anti-corruption committee, has slammed Umerov’s actions, including his moves to sack the two experienced experts in defense procurement from the supervisory board, seeing it as his first step in taking it under full control.
“I believe that such actions destroy the defense procurement reform and mean manual interference in procurement processes,” Radina wrote.
The Anti-Corruption Action Center, a prominent Ukrainian anti-corruption NGO, is directly calling for Umerov’s dismissal, describing his actions as “clear sabotage and undermining” of Ukraine’s defense capabilities.
“The stakes are not only 300 billion UAH of state budget funds but also the destruction of the ‘Danish model’ for financing Ukrainian arms purchases with foreign funds,” ANTAC wrote.
The international implications could be significant. For Bezrukova and her supporters, it’s a fight not just for a job, but for the principle of independent, transparent defense procurement in wartime — and the success of Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion.
Under Bezrukova’s leadership, the DPA also established clear procedures for defense manufacturers. In a technology-focused interview months before the scandal, she detailed the agency’s procurement requirements, particularly for drone manufacturers.
“We purchase only codified products that have a NATO code,” she explained. “That’s the first thing I always ask when people tell me about their products.” She emphasized the importance of proper military certification and revealed that her agency actively helps manufacturers navigate the bureaucratic processes.
Veterans were particularly valued in the procurement teams, she noted, because “a person who has seen blood, who knows what it’s like when there’s not enough weapons, understands that their work means the lives of their brothers in arms.”
We didn’t hear back from Minister Umerov but remain ready to provide him a platform to share his views.
