Parliament appointed Rustem Umerov as the Minister of Defense of Ukraine.

MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak announced this on his social media.

338 MPs voted for the appointment of the new Minister of Defense.

Umerov was appointed to replace Oleksii Reznikov, who held the position from November 2021 to September 2023.

President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed his candidacy on September 3, immediately after the announcement of the resignation of the current Minister of Defense. He emphasized that “the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine knows this person well, and Mr. Umerov does not need additional introductions. I expect the parliament to support this candidate.”

Rustem Umerov

At the beginning of the Russian invasion, Umerov was a member of the Ukrainian delegation that participated in several stages of negotiations with representatives of the Russian Federation.

It was probably during those negotiations in March that Umerov was poisoned with an unknown chemical.

He was also involved in negotiations on the exchange of prisoners of war, which resulted in the release of many defenders of Mariupol on September 21, 2022. Umerov was involved in negotiations with Saudi Arabia, thanks to which 10 foreign fighters who fought in the Defense Forces of Ukraine were released.

Among Ukrainian politicians, Umerov has a reputation as a reformer and effective manager. This is evidenced by his work as head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine. During the time of his team’s work, the Fund was reorganized and showed the highest profitability.

He is one of the leaders of the Crimean Tatar people and has experience in close cooperation with the foreign diaspora and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Umerov is also a co-founder of the ASTEM Foundation, which in May 2020 was involved in the restoration of the Ukrainian Navy’s tugboat Yany Kapu, which the Russian military damaged during the Kerch Strait incident.

The organization funded the repairs and purchased the necessary tools and equipment for the tugboat.