Crimean Tatar lawmaker Rustem Umerov will be Ukraine's new defence minister, who is he?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Sunday, announced via his official Telegram account that Oleksii Reznikov, the current defence minister, would step down this week. He stated that Rustem Umerov, a legislator representing the Crimean Tatar community, would take over the role.

Zelenskyy justified this change in leadership by highlighting that Reznikov had been at the helm for “more than 550 days of full-scale war.” In his nightly address, Zelenskyy said he believed “that the Ministry needs new approaches and different formats of interaction both with the military and with society.”

“The Verkhovna Rada (parliament) of Ukraine is well acquainted with this person, and Umerov does not require additional introductions. I expect support for this candidacy from parliament,” he told the nation.

Who is Rustem Umerov?

Known for his active involvement in delicate negotiations with Russia, Rustem Umerov's personal history is deeply intertwined with the complex historical context of the region. Born in Soviet Uzbekistan, his family endured exile under the oppressive rule of Joseph Stalin. However, fate brought Umerov back to Crimea in Ukraine during his childhood, when the Tatar community was granted permission to return to their ancestral land in the 1980s and 1990s.

Umerov, a 41-year-old Muslim, initially embarked on a career in the telecommunications industry in 2004 before entering the political arena, winning a seat in Ukraine's parliament in 2019. It was there that he assumed the role of co-chair for the Crimea Platform, an international diplomatic initiative aimed at reversing Russia's controversial annexation of Crimea in 2014. Throughout his career, he has also served as an advisor to Mustafa Dzhemilev, the venerable leader of the Crimean Tatars.

The annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 triggered a series of geopolitical conflicts, with Russia pushing through a contentious referendum on the annexation, a move vehemently condemned by Ukraine and its western allies.

Notably, the Crimean Tatar community, comprising 12-15% of the peninsula's population, largely boycotted the vote. In response, Moscow banned the Mejlis, the traditional assembly of the Tatar Muslim minority, labeling it an extremist organisation and imprisoning members on security grounds.

"Russian propagandists invented the narrative of dividing the Ukrainian nation into ethnics to justify their military actions on the territory of our country," Umerov asserted during an interview with Jordanian news site AmmanNet last year. "We do not feel any chauvinism or Islamophobia [in Ukraine] regarding our ethnicity or religion."

Throughout the tumultuous period following the annexation and the subsequent full-scale invasion by Russia, Umerov played a crucial role in behind-the-scenes negotiations with Russian officials. These negotiations encompassed high-profile prisoner exchanges and the evacuation of civilians.

Umerov was a pivotal member of Ukraine's delegation in early talks with Russia during the initial weeks of the conflict. He also participated in discussions regarding the establishment of an export corridor for Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea. However, Russia eventually withdrew from the grain deal, accusing Ukraine and its allies of failing to fulfill their obligations under the agreement, further complicating the diplomatic landscape.

In September of the previous year, Umerov was appointed as the head of the State Property Fund, a particularly challenging role in Ukraine, where the privatisation process has long been marred by corruption. He is slated to step into his new role as Ukraine's defence minister within the next week.