The Kremlin media are spreading information that the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksii Reznikov was removed from his post, allegedly due to the fact that “the conflict with Russia dragged on”. Russian propaganda refers to an article in The New York Times. It is not true.

The fact-checkers of the StopFake project drew attention to the case. After analyzing the New York Times article cited by Russian propagandists, they came to the conclusion that the publication did not indicate this reason as the key reason for the dismissal of Oleksii  Reznikov. “The fate of Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has become the subject of growing speculation in Ukraine as financial irregularities at the ministry became known and the government launched several investigations into official corruption”, the NYT article says. They also add that as the war dragged on, there was a need for new leadership that could solve the accumulating problems.

Thus, Russian propaganda discredits the Ukrainian authorities and tries to shift the responsibility to Ukraine - they say, it is to blame for the duration of the war that Russia started. Russian propaganda uses the “most guilty” tactics.