On 6 September, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine appointed Rustem Umerov as the new Minister of Defence. 338 MPs supported his candidacy. He replaced Oleksiy Reznikov, who had been heading the Ministry since November 2021.
What is known about Umerov?
Rustem Umierov is a Ukrainian politician and entrepreneur of Crimean Tatar origin, born in Uzbekistan. His family had been forcibly deported in 1944, and the Umierovs were able to return to their native Crimea only in the 1990s.
He graduated from the National Academy of Management with a degree in economics and finance. From 2003 to 2010, he worked at Lifecell, where he rose from head of management to head of department. In 2007, he co-founded the Bizin Qirim organisation and the Crimean Tatar Community NGO. He is fluent in Turkish.
In 2013, he founded the ASTEM Foundation and worked as Managing Director of the international investment company ASTEM. Umierov also helped to establish the Cultural Heritage Foundation and is a co-founder of the Euphor Foundation.
In 2019, he was elected as a Member of Parliament of the 9th convocation from the Holos party; he was co-chairman of the Crimean Platform parliamentary association. He is also an adviser to the leader of the Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Dzhemilev.
Rustem Umierov is called a skilful negotiator. Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he has been one of the key members of the Ukrainian delegation in negotiations with Russia. Umierov also took part in the prisoner exchange, and was actively involved in releasing political prisoners, children and civilians, as well as evacuating people from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
"He is a strong manager with a strategic vision, who has well-established international relations in the United States, the European Union, the Arab world, Turkey and Central Asia," said Refat Chubarov, Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars.
In September 2022, Umierov became the head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine. Under his leadership, the Fund received almost UAH 4 billion from selling objects.
NAKO sincerely congratulates the newly appointed Minister. We wish the new minister success in systemic changes within the ministry and look forward to continuing further cooperation.
What preceded the personnel changes?
Despite Oleksiy Reznikov's significant contribution to building an international coalition of support for Ukraine and providing the Ukrainian Armed Forces with new types of Western weapons, the minister's possible resignation has been discussed for almost a year. This is predominantly due to civil society’s repeated criticism of several procurement scandals within the ministry and the lack of decisive systemic steps to mitigate corruption risks in this sensitive area. These included the procurement of food and clothing, as well as the under-delivery of weapons and contracts with dubious companies.
As a result, Reznikov created a separate Public Anti-Corruption Council, of which NAKO is also part. The ministry itself filed many lawsuits to recover funds from companies that had overdue contracts or performed poorly. However, despite these public efforts, investigators continue to find new evidence that the ministry's procurement policy has remained corrupt and opaque since the full-scale invasion.
It is currently unknown what exactly Reznikov will be doing after the resignation, but media suggests he may be appointed as Ukraine's ambassador to the UK.