Who Is Rustem Umerov, Zelensky’s Nominee for Defense Minister of Ukraine?

President Volodymyr Zelensky named Rustem Umerov as his option to be Ukraine’s subsequent protection minister, choosing a outstanding member of the Crimean Tatar ethnic group who has performed a key function in negotiations with Russia for the reason that begin of the struggle.

In asserting his choice on Sunday, Mr. Zelensky was temporary. “Mr. Umerov,” he mentioned, “does not need any additional introductions.”

Though a member of an opposition political get together, Mr. Umerov, 41, has taken on a number of crucial roles for the federal government for the reason that Russian invasion final yr. He was the chief Ukrainian negotiator of an settlement that allowed Ukraine to export a few of its grain, and a outstanding negotiator on prisoner exchanges.

A former funding banker, Mr. Umerov is a lawmaker with the Holos get together, which is in opposition to Mr. Zelensky’s Servant of the People get together. He served as a key consultant for Ukraine in peace talks with Russian diplomats within the early months of the struggle, and was one in every of a number of folks, together with the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who reportedly suffered signs related to poisoning simply earlier than negotiations in Istanbul in March final yr.

Russia has persecuted the Crimean Tatars, who’re predominantly Muslim, because it illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, concentrating on them for arrests, Ukrainian authorities say. Many of their leaders have fled to territory managed by Ukraine.

Mr. Umerov has been clear that he’s aligned with Mr. Zelensky on refusing to cede any Ukrainian territory to Russia. The Donbas area in jap Ukraine and Crimea are “our red lines,” he advised the Turkish state news company Anadolu final yr, including, “We will not give up our people or our land.”

For the previous yr, Mr. Umerov has been the chairman of Ukraine’s State Property Fund, which is accountable for privatizating state belongings. In the primary half of 2023, the fund reported its largest proceeds in 10 years, bringing in $49 million by auctioning off state property, together with the Ust-Dunaisk seaport within the Odesa area.

Widespread privatization in Ukraine, he advised Reuters, would “be the last nail in Communism’s coffin.”

Valerie Hopkins contributed reporting.