New Defence Minister's candidacy emerged at last minute

Rustem Umierov,  the former head of the State Property Fund, has recently been considered as a candidate for the post of Defence Minister, thanks to his reputation and good connections abroad.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda in the article Zelenskyy's Fourth Defence Minister. Why the President is replacing Reznikov with Umierov

Details: One of the president's close associates said off the record that the candidate for defence minister appeared very quickly and "literally 10 days ago". 

According to this source, Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Rustem Umierov, and he "could not refuse". 

"Obviously, Yermak introduced Umierov to the team, but the decision on the Ministry of Defence is the president's decision. Yermak was quite satisfied with Rustem in the State Property Fund," the source told Ukrainska Pravda.

Umierov became a compromise candidate, as Zelenskyy sees him as a manager, pro-Western activists see him as a man with a reputation, and Yermak sees him as someone who will not affect the two deputy defence ministers who are important to him.

Rustem Umierov formally entered politics as a member of Svyatoslav Vakarchuk's Holos party, but in fact, he is more likely to be a representative of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars [the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people is a representative body of the Crimean Tatars, similar to a parliament and consisting of 33 members - ed.]. 

He met Andrii Yermak in 2019 when he was still an assistant to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and not the head of the Office of the President. 

"In August 2019, Andrii [Yermak – ed.] was an advisor to the president. At that time, a plan was being developed for the president's visit to Türkiye, and we have a very large diaspora in Türkiye. We have been working since then, giving our insights," Umierov himself once explained to Ukrainska Pravda. 

On 28 February 2022, Umierov was a member of the delegation at the talks with the Russians in Belarus, and when the talks were moved to Istanbul, the Ukrainian team was greatly helped by Umierov's connections with the Turkish establishment, which he had gained while working as an aide to Mustafa Dzhemiliev [former Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars - ed.].

Ukrainska Pravda stated that Umierov is personally acquainted with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and has direct contact with his right-hand man, Ibrahim Kalin.

Umierov is also useful to the President’s Office for his ties with Saudi Arabia. He was one of the members of the Ukrainian delegation to the recent "peaceful" meeting of security advisers in Jeddah.

So the decision to appoint Umierov to the Defence Ministry is unexpected only at first glance. 

At the same time, since February, the ideas of appointing Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Defence Intelligence, Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Prime Minister for Recovery, or Oleksandr Kamyshin, Minister for Strategic Industries, as Defence Minister have been rejected for various reasons.

Background:

On 5 September, the Verkhovna Rada accepted the resignation of Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov, who had submitted his resignation following a decision by the president. MPs also released Umierov from his post as head of the State Property Fund.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed to the parliament that Rustem Umierov be appointed as Minister of Defence of Ukraine, and the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people called on MPs to support this candidate.

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