Ukraine’s defense minister Stepan Poltorak has left military service in the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Oct. 13, only to be immediately reappointed by President Petro Poroshenko as the new civilian defense minister in compliance with the NATO-style defense reform.
The decision effectively marked the end of Poltorak’s 35-year-long military career, as a result of which he retires as a General of the Army, the highest army rank in Ukraine.
In an address published on Poltorak’s official Facebook page, the minister expressed gratitude to Poroshenko and the whole nation, as well as all of the Ukrainian soldiers and officers, and his own family, for his decades in service, which he described as “bright and happy.”
Poltorak, however, noted that even though he was leaving the Armed Forces, his service to the people of Ukraine was not over yet.
Almost simultaneously with the statement’s publication, the Ministry of Defense announced that President Poroshenko had already accepted Poltorak’s resignation request during an official ceremony.
The general’s retirement came to light against the backdrop of massive fires and munition detonations at the army’s strategic depot near the village of Ichnya in Chernihiv Oblast, an emergency situation that has dragged on since Oct. 8, with nearly 10,000 civilians still in evacuation from the area.
This was the fifth episode in a series of similar disastrous incidents at the army’s biggest munitions depots since 2014.
Nonetheless, Poroshenko — presumably pushing back against the public uproar following the Ichnya emergency — affirmed during the Oct. 13 ceremony that the defense minister’s dismissal from military service was “not a punishment,” and “not evidence of substandard work.”
“Vice versa, given the solemnity of the ceremony that took place on the eve of Defender of Ukraine Day (on Oct. 14), the case now is the recognition of the high quality and significance (of Poltorak’s activities),” Poroshenko was quoted as saying by the Ministry of Defense.
Poltorak, 53, started his military career as far back as August 1983 with the rank of Lieutenant of the Soviet Army. He was nominated to be defense minister in October 2014, during a period of intense hostilities against Russian-backed forces in Donbas.
For his service, Poroshenko decorated Poltorak with the 1st Class Bohdan Khmelnytskiy Order. In his official speech, the president also added that he had accepted the General’s resignation “with a heavy heart.”
However, he immediately announced that Poltorak would retain his position in the government.
“With regards to (Poltorak’s) significant, even pivotal, contribution to the resurrection of Ukraine’s Armed Forces and the inception of Ukraine’s National Guard, I have decided that he will continue his leadership of the Defense Ministry as a civilian (defense) minister,” he said.
Poroshenko referred to the groundbreaking National Security Law, signed on June 5 and aimed at formulating a legal framework for transforming Ukraine’s defense and security under NATO benchmarks through late 2020.
The bill demands that the defense minister be nominated from among civilians starring from Jan. 1, 2019, providing for civilian control of the military, a principle embraced by NATO states for decades.
However, as the Kyiv Post reported in February 2018, prior to being submitted to parliament, the new national security legislation was stripped of a provision stipulating that a civilian defense minister, if he or she had previously served in the military, must be out of uniform for at least five years before being nominated.
At the time, the Kyiv Post predicted that the document was probably altered to empower President Poroshenko to retire General Poltorak from active military duty and then reappoint him as the new civilian defense minister close to the 2019 deadline.
By taking such a step on Oct. 13, Poroshenko has formally complied with the reformed NATO-style legislation, but has effectively introduced no tangible changes to the country’s defense and security leadership.
However, during the nomination ceremony, the president nonetheless stressed that his decision “completely meets both letter and spirit of the law.”
