Ukraine Appoints Arsen Zhumadilov as Director of Defense Procurement Agency

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has officially appointed Crimean Arsen Zhumadilov as the director of the Defense Procurement Agency (DPA).

He announced this on social media.

Zhumadilov noted that he did not take this position because of personal ambitions, but because it was necessary to create a new institution and restructure the existing processes. He emphasized that the work in this position does not imply a "quiet regime" and aims to build an effective system that will be useful for the state and society.

Since March 6, Andriy Sozansky, who has experience in this system, has been temporarily acting as the Director General of the State Logistics Operator. Zhumadilov also emphasized the high expectations and the need for rapid changes in defense procurement to increase the efficiency of this institution.

What's next. The Defense Procurement Agency should work more efficiently. There are very high expectations from everyone involved in the defense sector. Changes are objectively overdue and perhaps overripe. We all have no time to delay any longer," he said.

Arsen Zhumadilov is a Crimean Tatar public and political figure. He was born in Simferopol.

Earlier, a scandal arose around the Agency due to the removal of Marina Bezrukova from the leadership of the Agency.

Prior to that, Zhumadilov was the head of the state enterprise Medical Procurement of Ukraine. In this position, in 2020, he criticized the activities of the then Minister Ilya Yemets, accusing the Minister of slowing down public procurement.

Arsen Zhumadylov won the competition for the position of Director General of the State Enterprise "Medical Procurement of Ukraine" in April 2019.

In 2016, Arsen Zhumadylov took part in a competition for the position of Deputy Head of the Odesa Regional State Administration, in which he won first place. However, for unknown reasons, he refused the position.

Later, on the NewsOne TV channel, the then-governor of Odesa region Mikheil Saakashvili stated that the appointment of deputy heads of the Odesa regional state administration was being delayed by representatives of the Presidential Administration.

In March 2017, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko ordered the dismissal of Arsen Zhumadilov from the post of head of the Bilyaevsky District State Administration, which he had held since 2015.

Андрій Колісніченко