Rustem Umerov, a Crimean Tatar congressman, will replace Oleksii Reznikov as defence minister this week, according to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who made the announcement on Sunday.

Zelenskyy published the news on his verified Telegram channel.

“I have made the decision to remove Ukraine’s defence minister. Oleksii Reznikov has experienced a full-scale war for more than 550 days. I think the Ministry needs fresh ideas and different ways to communicate with the military and the general public. Now the Ministry should be headed by Rustem Umerov,” he stated.

Since September 2022, lawmaker Umerov, 41, of the opposition Holos party, has led the State Property Fund of Ukraine. He took part in the exchange of political prisoners, children, civilians, and prisoners of war in addition to the evacuation of inhabitants from occupied areas. Umierov participated in talks with Russia on the grain agreement approved by the U.N. as a member of the Ukrainian delegation.

The announcement was made after officials reported that two persons were sent to the hospital after a 312-hour Russian drone onslaught on a port in the Odesa region of Ukraine on Sunday.

In order to discuss the restart of food shipments from Ukraine under a Black Sea grain agreement that Moscow withdrew from in July, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan are scheduled to meet the day before the attack on the harbour in Reni.

In the early hours of Sunday, Russian forces launched 25 Shahed drones built in Iran along the Danube River, 22 of which were shot down by air defences, the Ukrainian air force reported on Telegram.

Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, claimed that Russia was behind the attack in an effort “to provoke a food crisis and hunger in the world.”

According to a statement from the Russian Defence Ministry, the strike targeted fuel storage facilities that supply military equipment.

On Monday, the long-awaited summit between Putin and Erdogan is scheduled to take place in Sochi on Russia’s southwest coast.

The two will talk about reviving the Black Sea grain programme, which the Kremlin withdrew from six weeks ago, according to Turkish authorities.

Nearly 33 million metric tonnes (36 million tonnes) of grain and other goods were able to depart three Ukrainian ports securely thanks to the accord, which was mediated by the UN and Turkey in July 2022.

Russia withdrew from the pact, though, stating that a separate agreement, which promised to ease barriers to Russian shipments of food and fertiliser, had not been kept.

Nearly 33 million metric tonnes (36 million tonnes) of grain and other goods were able to depart three Ukrainian ports securely thanks to the accord, which was mediated by the UN and Turkey in July 2022.