Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will ask his country's parliament to dismiss Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov this week, and he wants Rustem Umerov to be his successor.

Zelensky’s decision, which he announced during his nightly address on Sunday, sets the stage for the biggest shake-up of the country’s defense leadership since Russia invaded more than a year and a half ago. Reznikov has been defense minister since Nov. 2021.

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"I've decided to replace the Minister of Defense of Ukraine. Oleksii Reznikov has been through more than 550 days of full-scale war," Zelensky said. "I believe the ministry needs new approaches and other formats of interaction with both the military and society as a whole."

Reznikov has helped secure billions of dollars of Western military aid to help the war effort, but he, among others, has faced graft allegations surrounding his ministry that he has characterized as smears. He was supposed to come to Washington, D.C., this week.

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Ukraine's highly anticipated counteroffensive has yielded some small gains over the last two months, though it's unclear if the lack of significant progress contributed to Zelensky's decision to get rid of Reznikov. Russian forces are mostly concentrated in the southern and eastern portion of Ukraine, and they have dug into their position, including using land mines, to make it harder for Ukraine to retake land.

Umerov, 41, is a former lawmaker who has headed Ukraine's State Property Fund since September 2022.