Volodymyr Zelenskiy has announced that he intends to dismiss the defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, from his post and will ask parliament this week to replace him with Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s main privatisation fund. The announcement, made in the Ukrainian president’s nightly video address to the nation, sets the stage for the biggest shake-up of Ukraine’s defence establishment since the war was launched by Russia in February 2022. Reznikov, who was named defence minister in November 2021, has helped secure billions of dollars of western military aid to help the war effort, but has been dogged by graft allegations surrounding his ministry that he described as smears. “I’ve decided to replace the minister of defence of Ukraine. Oleksii Reznikov has been through more than 550 days of full-scale war,” Zelenskiy said. “I believe the ministry needs new approaches and other formats of interaction with both the military and society as a whole.” The change of defence minister must be approved by parliament, but is likely to be supported by a majority of lawmakers in the Verkhovna Rada. Zelenskiy said he expected parliament to approve Umerov’s appointment. Umerov, a 41-year-old ex-lawmaker who is a Crimean Tatar, has headed Ukraine’s State Property Fund since September 2022 and has played a role in sensitive wartime negotiations on, for instance, the Black Sea grain deal. Zelenskiy also said on Sunday night that had struck a “very important agreement on training our pilots in France” in a conversation with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Sunday. “Our coalition of modern fighters is becoming stronger,” he said, adding that Macron had also discussed what France could do to help protect the Ukrainian city of Odesa and the region.