It's a historic decision: For the first time in Ukraine's history, a representative of the Crimean Tatars will head the Ministry of Defense. The position is a key post in the middle of the war of aggression that Russia has been waging against Ukraine since February 2022.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made his nomination of Rustem Umerov public on Sunday, and parliament is expected to vote on it this week.
The ministry needs "new approaches and new formats of cooperation both with the military and with society at large," Zelenskyy said in his daily televised address while talking about the decision to nominate Umerov.
The nomination was preceded by a second wave of corruption allegations against the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, a situation that had its leader, Minister Oleksii Reznikov, under more and more pressure. Examples of corruption among ministry officials include bribes accepted at regional muster offices so men could avoid mobilization and the alleged procurement of soldiers' uniforms at inflated prices. The first wave of criticism at the beginning of the year focused, among other things, on food purchased at too high a price.
Now, a year and a half after the Russian invasion, Ukraine is changing the head of the Defense Ministry for the first time. So who is the new leader?
Grain agreement co-negotiated
Rustem Umerov seems a perfect candidate for the job for many reasons. The 41-year-old had been head of the State Trust Foundation for about a year, handling privatization and thus fundraising for the state treasury, which had been badly hit by the war. And Umerov brought in money: His office sold a subsidiary of the arms manufacturer "Ukroboronprom," responsible for the processing and disposing of production residues, for 211 million euros.
In the Ukrainian parliament, Umerov was a deputy and head of a committee that controls the handling of Western military aid. Among other things, he was responsible for ensuring greater transparency.
Umerov was also involved in two particularly important diplomatic initiatives: He was part of the select circle of the Ukrainian delegation sent to the first round of negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv in Belarus, immediately after the invasion.
He was also involved in the negotiations on the grain agreement in Turkey in the summer of 2022. The agreement with Turkey and the UN secured the export of Ukrainian food from Black Sea ports. Almost one year later, Russia pulled out of the agreement. Most recently, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's attempt to revive the deal failed, though the Turkish president has said he wants to continue negotiations and remains optimistic.
Childhood in deportation
It is Umerov's personal history that makes him special as defense minister. Above all: his connection to Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
Umerov is a Crimean Tatar and was born in 1982 in the then-Soviet Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan. His family is from Crimea and, like hundreds of thousands of Crimean Tatars, was deported to remote areas in 1944 under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
The family did not return to Ukraine until the 1990s. He therefore has "an existential opposition to Russia's colonial and predatory policies," Umerov said in an interview with the Ukrainian newspaper Liwyj bereh. He spent his childhood "in deportation" in Uzbekistan.
After studying economics, Umerov quickly made a career as a businessman. Among other positions, he was the department head of a Turkish mobile phone company in Ukraine and began doing more political work for Crimean Tatars — he was an advisor to the leading political representative of the Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Dzhemilev. In 2019, Umerov was elected to the Ukrainian parliament as a deputy for the "Holos" (Voice) party.
Defense minister with diplomatic duties
It is Umerov's connections to Turkey and the Islamic world that make him particularly valuable to Zelenskyy. Connections to Turkey have always been important for Ukraine. A prominent example are the Bayraktar drones purchased in Turkey that helped Ukraine repel Russian attacks early on in the war.
A good relationship with Turkey is crucial for yet another reason: Should Ukraine's relationship with Ankara deteriorate and Russian warships again cross the Bosporus, that would pose a "serious threat to Ukrainian waters," Umerov said in the Liwyj bereh interview.
The designated defense minister also looks to have good contacts in the United States. A foundation he established helped initiate an educational program for aspiring Ukrainian politicians at Stanford University.
Umerov will need contacts like this not only to maintain but also to expand international assistance to Ukraine, especially from the Middle East. Countries there still do not support Western sanctions against Russia. A Ukrainian defense minister is also a diplomat in times of war. Zelenskyy obviously counts on Umerov's recent experience in this field as well.