Ukroboronprom head Husiev departs amid restructuring at Ukrainian Defense Company

Yuriy Husiev will not be the director of the new JSC Ukrainian Defense Industry. Two candidates are being considered instead

Andrii Vodianyi

Senior editor

Uliana Bukatyuk

LIGA.net business correspondent

Yurii Smirnov

Special correspondent, LIGA.net

June 22 2023, 18:28

Ukroboronprom head Husiev departs amid restructuring at Ukrainian Defense Company — Photo: Ukroboronprom

The decision on the dismissal of the general director of the state defense concern Ukroboronprom Yuriy Husiev was adopted. The appointment of his successor may take place on Wednesday, June 28.

This information was confirmed by seven sources related to the industry in a comment to LIGA.net.

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"There is no particular reason [for the resignation], they agreed to part ways amicably with the minister [for strategic industries, Alexander Kamyshin]," said an interlocutor in the leadership of the Servant of the People faction in a comment to LIGA.net.

The source in the management of the concern called it not a resignation, but a planned decision.

According to him, Husiev "fulfilled his duty to the president", who appointed him to reorganize the concern into a company.

"The new joint-stock company will be headed by a new person," he said.

Several interlocutors told LIGA.net that Husiev's dismissal was a decision of the President's Office.

Among the main contenders for Husiev's post, the names of the current deputy minister for strategic industries Serhiy Boyev and the current general director of the SE "V.O. Malyshev Factory" Herman Smetanin are heard most often. At the same time, according to one of LIGA.net's interlocutors, "Boyev does not want" to hold the proposed position.

LIGA.net reached out to Husiev, Boyev and Smetanin, but none of them had publicly commented at the time of publication.

LIGA.net interlocutors reported that after his resignation Yuriy Husiev may head one of the embassies of Ukraine, for example, in the Czech Republic. According to sources, Husiev himself plans to "work on the tasks that the president will determine."

Husiev had been working as the director of the Ukroboronprom state concern since December 2020.

The corporatization of Ukroboronprom is provided for by the law, which was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada in the summer of 2021 .

On March 21, 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers adopted the formal decision on transformation of Ukroboronprom.

However, even after the publication of the resolution, the reform did not begin. It turned out that Husiev does not have the authority to register a new joint-stock company, and the Cabinet of Ministers has not decided who exactly should do it.