Herman Smetanin resigns as head of Ukroboronprom, Ukraine’s largest defense company, after a Russian strike on one of its warehouses near Kyiv kills nine

The head of Ukraine's largest defense company has stepped down. According to Meduza, Herman Smetanin announced his resignation as director general of Ukroboronprom, calling it an honor to have led the company he had run since June twenty twenty-three, though he gave no reason for leaving. His departure follows a Russian missile and drone strike in the early hours of July sixth on a Ukroboronprom warehouse in Vyshneve, near Kyiv, which killed nine people and destroyed dozens of homes while damaging more than three hundred others. The prime minister at the time, Yulia Svyrydenko, described it as the most extensive destruction of residential areas at any point in the full-scale invasion, and President Volodymyr Zelensky had said dismissals at the company were certain because the warehouse belonged to one of its enterprises.

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