Zelenskyy sends strong signals with choice for Ukraine’s new defense chief
- Kyiv is serious about cleaning up corruption, and
- steadfast about regaining Crimea from Russian control.
Umerov, 41, will become the first Muslim and Crimean Tatar to gain such a high post in the Ukrainian government.
- In addition to his financial acumen, Umerov’s appointment will mean a deeper integration of the Crimean Tatar community into decision-making in Kyiv.
- It also clearly indicates Ukraine’s adamant determination to take Crimea back.
The planned change is the highest-level shake-up in Zelenskyy’s administration since Russia launched its all-out invasion in February 2022. Zelenskyy called on the Ukrainian legislature to approve the decision as soon as possible.
Umerov, founder of investment company ASTEM and a Ukrainian MP, has been one of the most prominent advocates of Ukraine’s re-occupation of Crimea, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014. In addition to working as a head of the State Property Fund since 2022, he has been actively taking part in international negotiations, including with Russia.
“He is a strong manager with a strategic vision, who has well-established international connections in the U.S., the European Union, the Arab world, Turkey, and the countries of Central Asia,” said Refat Chubarov, chairman of the Mejlis, the political representative body of the Crimean Tatars in exile.
“Such a high appointment is a good signal for Crimean Tatars’ integration into Ukrainian government structures, and also a great responsibility for the native community,” Chubarov told POLITICO.
He often very quietly did the things that had failed in the Defense Ministry during the last year and a half,” Daria Kaleniuk, acting director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, a Kyiv-based watchdog, said in a statement.
Kaleniuk also praised Umerov’s performance as the head of the State Property Fund.
Career[edit]
In 2013, with Aslan Ömer Qırımlı, Umierov founded the investment company ASTEM and its ASTEM Foundation.[9][self-published source] ASTEM manages investments in the fields of telecommunication, information technology, and infrastructure mainly communication towers and fiber-optic networks.
The foundation funded Stanford University's Ukrainian Emerging Leaders program.[10]
Since 2019, Umierov has been a People's Deputy of Ukraine from the Holos political party.[1] In September 2022, the Verkhovna Rada appointed him as the head of Ukraine State Property Fund.
He is the President's Advisory Council Commissioner for Ukraine's Interaction with Arab and Muslim States. He has been on Ukraine's negotiation team with Russia since February 2022.
On 3 September 2023, Umierov was nominated by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to replace Oleksii Reznikov as the Minister of Defence of Ukraine.[11]
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