Who is Rustem Umerov, Zelesnsky’s pick for defense minister?

Reznikov has not been charged in any corruption instances and Zelensky has not accused him of malfeasance. Excessive-profile allegations of graft have plagued the Protection Ministry, nevertheless, throughout the warfare.

Ukraine’s protection minister oversees billions in weapons and different navy assist despatched by Ukraine’s allies. Umerov has a repute as a talented negotiator and anti-corruption campaigner. However he’s set to take the reins of an establishment below scrutiny over corruption allegations and a slow-moving counteroffensive in Ukraine’s southeast.

Upon parliamentary approval, Umerov would depart his place as the pinnacle of Ukraine’s foremost privatization company, the State Property Fund, which he has run for a 12 months. There, he gained reward for instituting large audits and removing alleged corruption and misappropriation of funds.

Umerov told Forbes in an October interview that his group acted “solely for the good thing about Ukraine” — and that these with “hidden motives” ought to discover a new job.

Umerov is a member of the pro-European Holos celebration, not Zelensky’s Servant of the Individuals celebration. He has a large community of sources and has been a part of high-stakes negotiations.

A month into the invasion of Ukraine, Umerov was a part of the Ukrainian delegation that held early talks with Russia. (Peace talks have since stalled.) He helped negotiate the Black Sea grain deal — from which Moscow withdrew in July — together with prisoner exchanges. He joined Zelensky for a go to to Saudi Arabia in Could and first girl Olena Zelenska within the United Arab Emirates in March.

Umerov’s numerous background displays Ukraine’s multicultural historical past.

Umerov was born in Samarkand, then a part of the Soviet Union, to a Crimean Tatar household initially from the Crimean Peninsula however deported by the Soviets within the Nineteen Forties. Crimean Tatars are a Turkic Sunni Muslim minority, among the many many minorities the Soviets repressed.

Russia illegally seized the territory from Ukraine and annexed it 2014.

Umerov has known as on his Crimean Tatar roots in his effort to construct Ukraine’s diplomatic and financial ties to Persian Gulf states and Turkey. “We additionally present that Ukrainian Muslims are preventing for the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine, he told Forbes. “This emotional issue is vital for the OIC international locations through which the Russian narrative prevails.”

Since 2020, Umerov has co-chaired a job power to finish Crimea’s occupation. He returned to Crimea together with his household in 1991 after the Soviet Union collapsed. He advised Forbes he was final there in 2014 and he deliberate to return “after we liberate all of the occupied territories.”

Umerov is a polyglot, having realized Ukrainian, Tatar, Russian, Turkish and English at boarding college, in keeping with his press workplace.

What’s the response to Umerov?

Vitaliy Shabunin, the pinnacle of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Motion Middle, a nongovernmental group, called Umerov’s nomination in all probability “one of the best resolution of the president.”

“Umerov’s group on the State Property Fund did the inconceivable” in investigating graft, he stated.

Tamila Tasheva, who heads the Kyiv-based Autonomous Republic of Crimea and is herself Crimean Tatar, said on Facebook that Umerov could be the primary Crimean Tatar appointed a cupboard minister in Ukraine.

His nomination “is a crucial sign for Ukrainian society and all our residents in Crimea that Ukraine will battle for Crimea till it’s free of Russian occupation,” she stated. It “lastly shuts down anybody’s makes an attempt (together with allies) to strain us into surrendering Crimea.”

A few of Zelensky’s critics, nevertheless, raised issues that Umerov lacks navy experience at a vital second within the warfare. Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov known as Umerov “a person removed from warfare” who “may have no motion applications, no understanding of what to do.”

What challenges does Umerov face?

Reznikov resigned after months of mounting controversies and hypothesis that Zelensky would oust him.

Reznikov has not been charged in any ongoing corruption probes. However the ministry has been accused of buying meals for troopers at inflated costs and shopping for jackets for the navy by means of a corruption scheme.

Reznikov has denied the accusations and told The Washington Post in an announcement that due to his efforts to oust corruption within the ministry, “a number of high-ranking officers of the Ministry of Protection have been faraway from their posts and have become topics to investigation.”

Corruption was rampant in Ukraine earlier than the warfare, and Zelensky has been eager to indicate Western allies that navy assist is spent correctly.

Ukraine can be below strain over a slower-than-expected counteroffensive in opposition to Russian forces within the nation’s southeast. Whereas Ukraine has made some features, forces have struggled to beat Russia’s minefields and complicated defensive strains.