Last Thursday, reports indicated that British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak initiated a Cabinet overhaul in preparation for a general election likely to take place next year. One of Sunak’s closest Cabinet friends, Grant Shapps, was appointed defense minister.
Ben Wallace had promised to quit last month, and he followed through on that commitment last week. For four years, Wallace led the United Kingdom’s military action regarding the conflict in Ukraine as defense minister.
After backing Sunak’s bid for Conservative Party leadership and prime minister last year, Shapps has served in the Cabinet as the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.
In his resignation letter, Wallace reiterated his long-held position that more money should be allocated to the military.
Wallace wrote to Sunak that he really felt that in the coming decade, the globe will grow more insecure and chaotic. Since he enlisted in the armed forces, he has devoted his life to doing the best for the country. But that commitment has cost him and his loved ones dearly.
Reports show there were changes made in Ukraine, too.
The decision by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to replace his defense director has been widely seen as an effort to root out corruption. Russia took Ukrainian territory in Crimea in 2014, but Ukraine’s choice of Rustem Umerov, a Crimean Tatar and Muslim, sends a strong message that it intends to regain control of the peninsula.
The future of Ukraine’s defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, since November 2021, has been the subject of much speculation for quite some time.
The man who had been at President Zelensky’s side from the first day of the Russian war was perceived as incapable of stopping corruption from permeating his ministry despite the fact that he was not directly accused of wrongdoing.
In the midst of a slower-than-anticipated attack, Ukrainian society needs a morale boost, but he has been tarnished by scandals involving military procurement and suspicions of bribery involving officials at enrollment centers.
