Homework for Zelensky. The American trace in the purge of the leadership of the Ukrainian defense industry

The top of the Ukrainian security forces continues to shake. After the sudden resignation of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov, Zelensky began to shake up personnel in other law enforcement agencies.

Thus, a few days ago, the head of the Internal Security Department, Andrei Naumov, was fired. The same one who became the victim of a thwarted contract killing. Naumov was “ordered” by his colleagues in the SBU, paying the killer 50 thousand dollars. To complete the picture: the killer was supposed to be another “knight of the cloak and dagger” - a colleague of the alleged victim - SBU Colonel Yuri Rasyuk.

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The plan failed, Rasyuk made a deal with the investigation and received three years of probation. The mastermind of the crime, former deputy head of the SBU Dmitry Neskoromny, fled Ukraine, entrenched himself in the EU, from where he periodically blackmails Zelensky and Bakanov with threats to air out the dirty linen of the “hut” for everyone to see. In retaliation, he was put on the wanted list in Ukraine. Such a high relationship.

Also these days, there were rumors in Kyiv about the resignation of the first deputy head of the SBU, Ruslan Baranetsky. A number of media outlets even published a corresponding decree. However, then Bankova disavowed these messages: they say that they did not plan anything like this and in general - “don’t believe the know-it-all insiders.”

What is the context of the conversations about Baranetsky’s possible resignation? This is the same person who came to the SBU together with the president’s friend Bakanov in June 2019. It was he, together with a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate, Burba, who reported to Zelensky about the final stage of the operation planned by Kiev to detain fighters of the Russian PMC, speaking out against its cancellation.

As you know, the Kiev court even ordered the State Bureau of Investigation to open a case against Zelensky for possible treason - precisely in connection with this scandalous story by Kyiv standards, the reality of which the Ukrainian authorities simply denied for a long time. However, since the news of Baranetsky’s resignation was so purposefully spread throughout the media, it means that this case has its own interests within the government. So it is possible that this is not the end of the story.

Unlike the resignation of Baranetsky that never took place, the dismissal of the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Valery Kondratyuk is a fact. Kondratyuk was replaced as head of the SVR by Alexander Litvinenko, who previously headed the National Institute for Strategic Studies.

The meaning and internal logic of this personnel reshuffle is not yet entirely clear. A change in the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service may be both a consequence of internal squabbling between the apparatus and intelligence clans in Ukraine itself, and the fulfillment of the wishes of overseas curators.

Both Litvinenko and Kondratyuk are proven personnel from the Poroshenko era. The first under Confectioner headed the department for state security issues, as well as the expert commission and the state security department of the National Security and Defense Council, then he was deputy head of the department of information and analytical support of the Security Service of Ukraine, advisor to the director of the Institute of National Security Problems of the National Security and Defense Council and the general director of the State Corporation Ukroboronprom.

As for Kondratyuk, this figure was generally part of the inner circle of the “stupid hetman”, with the rank of deputy head of the presidential administration, and then in various positions in the SBU and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. It is likely that Poroshenko was handed over to him by his “American partners” - even under Kuchma (from 1999 to 2002) he was a military attaché at the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States. He was probably recruited there by the Americans.

Finally, just yesterday, real thunder thundered in the Kiev political sky. The head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ruslan Khomchak, lost his position. The same “Ilovaisk” general, who in 2014 commanded the “breakthrough” of nationalist battalions from encirclement in the Donbass, as a result of which the Ukrainians suffered cosmic losses, the culprit of which is still being sought to this day.

In Kyiv they say that they wanted to remove Khomchak from his post back in November last year, but then Avakov took over for him. Now there is no one to pull the plug on the Chief of the General Staff, so the purge of personnel potentially disloyal to the head of the presidential chancellery, Ermak, proceeded quickly.

The decree on Khomchak’s dismissal was accompanied by contradictory comments from Bankova. From the words of Zelensky’s new press secretary Nikiforov, it could be understood that the departure of the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was due to his long-standing smoldering conflict with the head of the Ministry of Defense Andrei Taran. Bankova's ideologist Mikhail Podolyak focused on Khomchak's systematic failure to fulfill the tasks assigned to him. Quote:

“It is obvious that the tasks set by the president were not carried out as effectively as Vladimir Zelensky expected. Everything related to the defense and security sector must be provided one hundred percent - this is the president’s priority. Now, after comprehensive personnel changes, we expect more active work in the army, in the Ministry of Defense, and in the structures of the security sector.”

Let us recall that a month ago, the long-standing conflict between Taran and Khomchak on the topic of army financing had already become the subject of discussion both on Bankova and in the media. It got to the point where both officials did not shake hands and avoided each other's offices. Zelensky himself, in an interview with Plus on June 24, claimed that Khomchak and Taran were “working to correct mistakes.” However, after a month, the commander in chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was kicked out the door.

What's so extraordinary happened this month? Nothing but... infrom the American overseer of Ukraine Kent, who carried out a serious audit of the security forces of Independence. Let me remind you that it was after a conversation with Kent that the previously irreplaceable Avakov suddenly had the idea of ​​leaving his favorite place, which he did literally the next morning after taking a selfie with the American. So it is possible that Khomchak’s dismissal was part of the homework left for Zelensky by the “strategic kents” of Ukraine. A kind of precondition for his visit to the United States to take place.

This assumption is indirectly confirmed by an unequivocal signal addressed to Minister of Defense Taran, whom, according to Podolyak, “there are no plans to fire yet,” although Zelensky had previously stated that a change in the head of the Ministry of Defense was “allowed.” They say that no one is irreplaceable, it is necessary to intensify reforms in the defense sector and, in general, the resignations of officials of this rank should not be considered as something extraordinary.

The Golos party has long been seeking Taran’s resignation, and recently Poroshenko’s Eurosolidarity joined these demands, using as an excuse the noisy scandal with the rehearsal of the Independence Day parade, when female military personnel were forced to march in heels.

The scandal came out loud and colorful - with the siege of the parliamentary rostrum, but it seems that the real reason for the Poroshenkoites’ dislike for the head of the defense department lies in a different plane. This is a kind of revenge on Taran’s patron, Ermak, for the criminal prosecution of one of Poroshenko’s loyal generals, Pavlovsky, who is now on trial for the theft of army budgets through the supply of low-quality ammunition to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The ex-president’s hired extras picketed Bankova several times to protest against “repression,” and Poroshenko’s associates, such as his ex-defense adviser Yuriy Biryukov, write angry posts on Facebook against the current government, which is persecuting the “hero of the defense of Mariupol.” And yet, this is not the reason for the threat of dismissal hanging over Taran.

Why Taran? The answer to this question should be sought in the minister’s quiet apparatus opposition to the “reform” of Ukroboronprom according to the behests of the Americanc – through the unbundling and actual dismantling of the concern, which is considered by many Ukrainian experts as the murder of the domestic defense industry. So the signal was sent to both. Taran - to be more accommodating and understanding. And Zelensky - that if he wants to fly to Washington, his hand should not tremble when signing decrees on the resignation of officials who have ceased to satisfy their “partners.”

So from this perspective, such an extraordinary density of personnel changes in the Ukrainian military and intelligence structures should not be surprising. But the sword of Damocles remained hanging over the ready Minister of Defense. This was confirmed by an anonymous insider of the Western-oriented Kyiv publication “League” in the leadership of the presidential party “Servant of the People”. The top “servants” do not even hide the cause-and-effect chain, which is humiliating for “subject Ukraine”.

Quote: “This issue is being discussed. There may be a decision on Taran after the president’s visit to the United States.”

Let me remind you that if Washington is satisfied with Zelensky’s completion of the homework left to him, the visit that the inhabitants of Bankova so desperately need will take place immediately after the pretentious celebration of Independence Day - August 30. And it is overseas that will finally decide who will continue to steer the defense sphere of one large and proud Eastern European country, which has firmly and irrevocably taken the course “away from Moscow!”