Ukraine’s parliament on Wednesday approved the nomination of Rustem Umerov as defense minister, replacing Oleksi Reznikov. The nomination was approved by 338 votes in favour, none against and one abstention.
Reznikov’s replacement with Umerov was proposed by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday evening, claiming that the Defense Ministry “needed new approaches and new ways of interacting with the military, but also with civil society in general”.
The change of defense minister comes three months after Ukrainian forces launched a counter-offensive against Russian forces, which occupy 20% of the country.
Recently, several corruption scandals have come to light in the country, one of which directly concerns Reznikov, regarding a contract for the supply of military equipment signed with a Turkish company. “It has been an honor to serve the Ukrainian people and work for the Ukrainian army during the past 22 months, the most difficult period in Ukraine’s modern history,” Reznikov said in his letter of resignation to parliament.
Rustem Umerov is given custody by the Ministry of Defense in the middle of the war with Russia. He is a young manager of Tatar descent, born in Crimea and Muslim country, with good relations with Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Umerov, 41, a former deputy and director of the Real Estate Fund of Ukraine, was appointed defense minister by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensly on Sunday to replace lawyer Oleksi Réznikov, a 57-year-old lawyer who was fired after the revelation of a succession of cases of corruption within the armed forces and criticism from various quarters of the success of the Ukrainian counter-offensive against the Russian armed forces, although this was rejected by the Kiev authorities.
Umerov’s appointment as head of the Ministry of Defense can be interpreted as a sign of the importance Kiev attaches to the recovery of Crimea, and as a further sign of Zelensky’s willingness to reach out to the Arab world and especially Turkey, for which the Tatar interests are of great importance in relations with Ukraine.
The young politician of Tatar descent comes to government through the State Property Fund, a government body dealing with privatization processes in Ukraine, a country undermined by an endemic corruption problem, who was appointed to that position last September despite being part of of Zelensky’s party or inner circle.
Between 2019 and 2022, Umerov was a deputy in the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (parliament) for the centrist, liberal and Europeanist Holos (Vote) party, which is in the opposition in this term.
Umerov studied Economics and Finance and participated in a program for young leaders in the United States. Before entering politics, he held management positions at a company in the telecommunications sector and in 2013 he founded ASTEM, his own investment company in information and communication technologies.
ASTEM also has a fund dedicated to helping the victims of the Russian invasion, cooperates in some of its projects with governments and companies from countries such as Turkey and Poland, has developed programs to train civic and leadership youth in Ukraine and to honor them for his support for the rights and preservation of the culture of the Crimean Tatars, where the Umerov family has its roots.
These people, originally from Crimea, have suffered more than anyone from persecution by Russian authorities since Moscow annexed this Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.
Umerov, like many other Crimean Tatars, was born in Uzbekistan, where his family was deported by Stalin in 1944, and returned with his parents to the peninsula after the breakup of the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
For many years he was an adviser to the historical leader of the Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Djemilev, and co-chair of the Platform for Crimea, an initiative of the Ukrainian presidency to mobilize efforts both in Ukraine and abroad to regain control of Crimea to get. the peninsula.
Both after the annexation of Crimea and after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Rustem Umerov participated several times in discreet negotiations with Moscow, namely on prisoner exchanges and civilian withdrawal operations.
He was also part of the Ukrainian delegation for the negotiations with Russia, which, with the support of Turkey and the UN, enabled the establishment of a maritime corridor for the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, in an agreement that has since been signed by Moscow was deserted.
Belonging to a Turkish people with a Muslim religion has helped Umerov build close ties with the authorities and the business and political fabric of countries such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
In his years as a deputy, the Ukrainian politician stood out for his intensive legislative activities and was part of the relations group with the chambers of these two countries.
Zelensky announced on Sunday that he wanted to make him his next defense minister and indicated he would present the nomination to parliament this week.
“Parliament knows this person well, and Mr. Umerov needs no further introduction,” the Ukrainian president assured, hoping for the Rada’s support in his choice.
Source: DN
