Ukraine's ex-paratrooper defence minister Oleksii Reznikov leads resistance

Former lawyer took over the country's armed forces in November

Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov visits Ukrainian forces in the abandoned city of Pripyat near the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site. AP

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The defence minister leading Ukraine’s resistance against the Russian invasion is a former lawyer and ex-Soviet paratrooper who once helped to overturn a disputed presidential election victory by a Kremlin-friendly candidate.

Appointed only four months ago, Oleksii Reznikov has used his prominent role to publicise harrowing accounts of alleged Russian atrocities in Ukraine and to rally the country’s population to resist the onslaught.

Like President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he has lobbied European politicians to back up their warm words towards Ukraine with more military aid to help fend off Russia’s tanks, including in addresses to a Nato summit on Wednesday and the European Parliament on Thursday.

“Now is the time of trials for our generations. And we are passing them with dignity,” he said in a rallying cry to Ukraine’s people this week.

Mr Reznikov, who is 55 and was born in Lviv in western Ukraine, spent two years in the 1980s serving in the Airborne Parachute Troops of what was then the Soviet air force, and is known to be an amateur skier and scuba diver.

After leaving the military, he completed a law degree in Lviv that would later throw him into the heart of a political crisis in post-Soviet Ukraine.

A contentious presidential vote in 2004 saw Russia-friendly candidate Viktor Yanukovych narrowly defeat opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, who claimed he was poisoned during a campaign marred by claims of intimidation.

The result led to protests and was ultimately annulled by Ukraine’s Supreme Court in a case successfully argued by Mr Reznikov, leading to a re-run which was won by Mr Yushchenko.

After moving into politics, Mr Reznikov was a senior official in the Kyiv city government and represented Ukraine on a delegation of regional authorities to the Council of Europe.

When Mr Zelenskyy came to power in 2019, he appointed Mr Reznikov as a negotiator in Ukraine’s sensitive talks with Russia, France and Germany, a four-way grouping known as the Normandy format.

Mr Reznikov, later named deputy prime minister, claimed success in agreeing a ceasefire in the disputed Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, but accused Russia of lacking willingness to end the war and the truce ultimately failed to hold.

The Normandy format and the associated Minsk peace accords were meant to find a negotiated solution to the conflict but both sides accused each other of failing to implement them.

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  A woman cries near a building damaged by shelling in Kyiv as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues. EPA

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  A satellite photo from Planet Labs PBC shows the damage from a Russian strike on Lviv's international airport. AP

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  Destroyed cars hit by shelling in Kyiv. EPA

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  A woman stands in her home after her building was damaged by shelling in Kyiv. EPA

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  A pedestrian looks at a cloud of smoke rising after an explosion in Lviv. AP

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  General view of a street behind a barricade in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa. EPA

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  The UN Security Council meets on threats to international peace and security in New York. AFP

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  US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks with US troops at an army training range in Bulgaria. AP

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  Empty strollers are seen outside the Lviv city council building during an action to highlight the number of children killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AFP

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  Children play on the stage of the theatre of the Ukrainian House where a shelter for refugees has been installed in Przemysl, south-eastern Poland. AFP

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  Smoke is seen above buildings close to the airport in Lviv, Ukraine. Lviv's mayor said the airport was not hit, but an area nearby. Getty Images

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  Ukrainian firefighters try to extinguish a blaze at a warehouse after a bombing in Kyiv. AP Photo

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  President Volodymyr Zelenskiy presents flowers to Kateryna Vlasenko, 16 - who was injured as she fled with her family from the town of Vorzel - at a hospital in Kyiv. Reuters

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  Igor, a 40 year-old Ukranian soldier, embraces his wife in front of his military basement in the centre of Odesa. AFP

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  Ukrainian refugees arrive at the reception centre near Palanca Village, about 3 kilometres from the Moldova-Ukraine border. EPA

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  Broken windows after parts of a Russian missile, shot down by Ukrainian air defences, hit an apartment block in Kyiv. AP

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  People clear debris outside a medical centre damaged by the same Russian missile after it was intercepted. AP

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  A police officer looks through the window of a damaged flat in Kyiv. One person was killed and three injured when debris from a downed rocket hit an apartment in the Ukrainian capital. AFP

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  Firemen working in the rubble after extensive damage in Kyiv. AFP

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  Family members and comrades of Ivan Skrypny, who was killed in a rocket attack on a military base in Yavoriv, pay their last respects at his memorial service in Lviv, Ukraine. Reuters

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  A man feels the despair as his home was hit by debris from a downed rocket in Kyiv. Russian troops trying to encircle the capital have launched early morning strikes on the city for several successive days. AFP

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  UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed shakes hands with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a news conference following their talks in Moscow. Reuters

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  The Donetsk Regional Theatre of Drama, which was destroyed by an air strike during Russia's military onslaught in Mariupol, Ukraine. Reuters

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  A satellite image of the theatre before the bombing, with the word 'children' written in Russian in large white letters on the pavement in front of and behind the building. Reuters

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  A Ukrainian woman and her family in a taxi displaying the colours of the Ukrainian flag upon arriving in Madrid with a group of Spanish taxi drivers who drove to Poland to support the mass evacuation of refugees. Reuters

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  A sanitised train arrives in Kielce, Poland, carrying children with oncological diseases who fled Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Reuters

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  A man outside a damaged housing block after it was hit by debris from a downed rocket in Kyiv. AFP

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  A residential building damaged by a blast wave at the scene where debris from a downed rocket hit a nearby apartment block in Kyiv. AFP

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  Evacuees from Mariupol are seen upon arrival at the car park of a shopping centre on the outskirts of the city of Zaporizhzhia, which is now a registration centre for displaced people. AFP

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  Legislators applaud Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's president, after an address via video link at the Bundestag in Berlin. Bloomberg

By the time Mr Reznikov was moved to the defence ministry in November 2021, Russia was starting to amass troops on Ukraine’s border in a build-up that sent tension spiralling again.

Like Mr Zelenskyy and other top officials, Mr Reznikov sought to calm fears of an invasion and told Ukraine’s population as late as early February that there was no need to pack suitcases or flee the country.

But once Russia did invade on February 24, he was thrust into the role of organising Ukraine’s resistance and told Russian forces as they began losing tanks and aircraft: “Welcome to hell.”

In near-daily updates he has spoken of his outrage at Russia’s onslaught and his pride in a Ukrainian resistance which western officials say has succeeded in slowing down the invasion.

Burning enemy helicopters and funerals for Russian soldiers were a “demonstration of what is now happening to the occupying forces,” he said in an address on Wednesday.

“Many challenges still lie ahead,” he said. “The enemy will hurt us, destroy a part of the things we love. But every day we are taking a step to crush this enemy and live freely.”