Soldiers of Ukraine’s third Separate Assault Brigade shout slogans as they stand in line close to Bakhmut, the location of fierce battles with the Russian forces within the Donetsk area, Ukraine, on Sunday.

Libkos/AP

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Soldiers of Ukraine’s third Separate Assault Brigade shout slogans as they stand in line close to Bakhmut, the location of fierce battles with the Russian forces within the Donetsk area, Ukraine, on Sunday.

Libkos/AP

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned Sunday that protection minister Oleksii Reznikov might be changed this week with Rustem Umerov, a Crimean Tatar lawmaker.

Zelenskyy made the announcement on his official Telegram account, writing that new management was wanted after Reznikov went via “more than 550 days of full-scale war.”

Later in his nightly tackle, Zelenskyy mentioned he believes “that the Ministry needs new approaches and different formats of interaction both with the military and with society.”

“The Verkhovna Rada (parliament) of Ukraine is well acquainted with this person, and Umerov does not require additional introductions. I expect support for this candidacy from parliament,” the president informed the nation.

Umerov, 41, a politician with the opposition Holos social gathering, has served as head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine since September 2022. He was concerned within the trade of prisoners of battle, political prisoners, youngsters and civilians, in addition to the evacuation of civilians from occupied territories. Umerov was additionally a part of the Ukrainian delegation in negotiations with Russia over the U.N.-backed grain deal.

In August, a scandal arose across the Ministry of Defense’s procurement of navy jackets. Ukrainian investigative journalists reported that the supplies had been bought at a worth thrice larger than regular and that as an alternative of winter jackets, summer season ones had been ordered. In the customs paperwork from the provider, the jackets had been priced at $29 per unit, however the Ministry of Defense paid $86 per unit. Reznikov denied the allegations throughout a information convention final week.

U.S. President Joe Biden informed reporters in Delaware on Sunday that he is conscious Zelenskyy had changed his protection chief. Asked if he had any remark, Biden mentioned, “not publicly.”

Zelenskyy’s announcement got here after two individuals had been hospitalized following a 3½-hour Russian drone barrage on a port in Ukraine’s Odesa area on Sunday, officers mentioned.

Putin is assembly Turkey’s Erdogan to debate resumption of meals shipments

The assault on the Reni seaport comes a day earlier than Russian President Vladimir Putin is because of meet together with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to debate the resumption of meals shipments from Ukraine beneath a Black Sea grain settlement that Moscow broke off from in July.

Russian forces fired 25 Iranian-made Shahed drones alongside the Danube River within the early hours of Sunday, 22 of which had been shot down by air defenses, the Ukrainian air power mentioned on Telegram.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ‘s chief of workers, Andriy Yermak, described the assault as a part of a Russian drive “to provoke a food crisis and hunger in the world.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry mentioned in a press release that the assault was aimed toward gasoline storage services used to produce navy gear.

Putin and Erdogan’s long-awaited assembly is because of happen in Sochi on Russia’s southwest coast on Monday.

Turkish officers have confirmed that the pair will focus on renewing the Black Sea grain initiative, which the Kremlin pulled out of six weeks in the past.

The deal — brokered by the United Nations and Turkey in July 2022 — had allowed almost 33 million metric tons (36 million tons) of grain and different commodities to depart three Ukrainian ports safely regardless of Russia’s battle.

However, Russia broke away from the settlement after claiming {that a} parallel deal promising to take away obstacles to Russian exports of meals and fertilizer hadn’t been honored.

Moscow complained that restrictions on delivery and insurance coverage hampered its agricultural commerce, though it has shipped report quantities of wheat since final yr.

The Sochi summit follows talks between the Russian and Turkish international ministers on Thursday, throughout which Russia handed over a listing of actions that the West must take to ensure that Ukraine’s Black Sea exports to renew.

Erdogan has indicated sympathy with Putin’s place. In July, he mentioned Putin had “certain expectations from Western countries” over the Black Sea deal and that it was “crucial for these countries to take action in this regard.”

Elsewhere in Ukraine, three individuals had been killed in two separate assaults by Russian shelling within the Donetsk space Sunday. An 85-year-old man was named among the many victims after being crushed by the rubble of his own residence, Ukraine’s Prosecutors’ Office reported.

A 36-year-old man was additionally killed in one other Russian assault on Ukraine’s Kherson area.

Ukrainian prosecutors introduced Sunday that they’d opened a battle crimes investigation into the loss of life of a police officer killed by Russian shelling in town of Seredyna-Buda on Saturday afternoon.

Two different cops and one civilian had been wounded in the course of the assault, which hit Ukraine’s north-eastern Sumy area.