ISTANBUL 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy named Rustem Umerov, a leading figure in the Crimean Tatar community, as his candidate for the position of defense minister during a late evening address on Sunday.

Umerov’s candidacy came after Zelenskyy’s decision to dismiss Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, outlining the need for “new approaches and other formats of interaction with both the military and society at large.”

Zelenskyy further said that the Verkhovna Rada – Ukraine’s parliament – knows Umerov “well” and that he needs “no additional introductions,” hoping the parliament will support Umerov’s candidacy.

Though Zelenskyy did not provide an exact reason, Reznikov’s dismissal from his post was already in the limelight as local media reported earlier this year that he was dismissed. However, it was never officially announced.

“No official is in the chair forever. Not one. The decision to be defense minister or not is made by one person, the Ukrainian president … Therefore, only with the decision of the Ukrainian president, I will make certain decisions,” Reznikov said in response to the reports.

A number of Ukrainian officials either stepped down or were relieved of their duties after Zelenskyy declared in January that he would reshuffle officials at various levels in ministries and central and local administrative bodies as well as in law enforcement to build “a strong state.”

Ukraine has long suffered endemic corruption, but Russia's “special military operation” is said to have overshadowed the government's efforts to stamp out graft.

Who is Rustem Umerov?

Umerov was born on April 19, 1982, to an ethnic Crimean Tatar family in the city of Samarkand in the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, who later returned to Ukraine after Crimean Tatars exiled under Joseph Stalin were allowed to be repatriated.

Raised in a non-military background, Umerov received his higher education at the National Technical University of Ukraine’s "Igor Sikorsky Polytechnic Institute" in Kyiv and started his career in telecommunications and information technology as a co-founder of investment company ASTEM.

In 2019, he started his political career after being elected as a lawmaker in Ukraine’s parliament under the pro-European Holos party.

Since then, Umerov has played a major role in the parliament with regard to bills and decisions on Crimea until 2022. He was also a part of Ukraine's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

Umerov has been actively participating in Kyiv’s initiatives to highlight Crimea’s annexation by Russia in 2014, serving as the co-chair of the Crimea Platform, a diplomatic initiative of Ukraine to draw global attention to the peninsula’s annexation.

Recently, he has been serving as the head of Ukraine’s State Property Fund since September last year.