- Rustem Umerov would be the first-ever Muslim and Crimean Tatar to hold a minister position in Ukraine.
- Umerov is a prominent official of the Crimean Tatar community and has represented Kyiv in sensitive negotiations with Moscow.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has proposed Rustem Umerov, head of Ukraine’s privatization agency, to serve as the country’s wartime defense minister.
If parliament approves, Umerov would be the first-ever Muslim and Crimean Tatar to hold a minister position in Ukraine.
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“I’ve decided to replace the Minister of Defense of Ukraine. Oleksii Reznikov has been through more than 550 days of full-scale war,” Zelenskiy said in a night speech to the nation on Sunday, Reuters reported.
“I believe the ministry needs new approaches and other formats of interaction with both the military and society as a whole.
“The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is well acquainted with this person, and Umerov does not require additional introductions. I expect support for this candidacy from parliament,” the president added.
Who Is Umerov?
The 41-year-old is a prominent official of the Crimean Tatar community who has represented Kyiv in sensitive negotiations with Moscow, including peace talks at the start of the war.
Umerov was born in what was then the Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan, where his family had been exiled under Stalin.
As a child, his family resettled in Crimea when the Tatars were allowed to return during the 80s and 90s
Serving as an MP, Umerov co-chaired the Crimean Platform, which coordinated international diplomatic efforts to reverse Russia’s 2014 annexation of the peninsula.
He was also an adviser to the historical leader of the Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Dzhemilev, for many years.
Thanks to these roles, Umerov became a central pillar of Zelensky’s international outreach efforts, focusing on promoting ties in the Islamic world.
Who Are Crimean Tatars?
In 1944, on the pretext of false accusations of state treason, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered that 238,500 Tatars be forcibly deported from their homeland in Crimea as a form of collective punishment for their alleged collaboration with the Nazis.
The entire ethnic Crimean Tatar population, about one-fifth of the total population of the Crimean Peninsula, as well as a smaller number of ethnic Greeks and Bulgarians, were taken from their homes and transported mostly to Uzbekistan.
Once again in 2014, Crimean Tatars fell in the middle of the Russia-Ukraine tensions.
Crimea was seized by the Russian Federation after the overthrow of President Victor Yanukovych during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution.
This move was denounced by the new Ukrainian government and disregarded by most UN states, which continue to recognize Crimea as part of Ukraine.