About our Rustem Umerov news
Latest news on Rustem Umerov, a Ukrainian politician of Crimean Tatar origin who became the first Muslim to hold the position of defence minister in Ukraine.
Rustem Umerov was born on April 19, 1982 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to a Crimean Tatar family that was deported by the Soviet government from their homeland of Crimea in 1944. He received a bachelor's degree in economics and a master's degree in finance from the National Academy of Management.
In 2013, he founded the investment company ASTEM and its ASTEM Foundation, which manage investments in communications, information technology, and infrastructure.
Since 2019, he has been a People's Deputy of Ukraine from the Holos party. He has co-authored almost 100 bills and drafted a statement on the illegitimacy of Russia's vote on amendments to the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation.
Umerov has headed Ukraine's State Property Fund since September 2022 and has played a role in sensitive wartime negotiations on, for instance, the Black Sea grain deal.
Umerov was nominated by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in September 2023 to replace Oleksii Reznikov, who had been in charge of the defence ministry since November 2021. Zelenskyy said that he decided to replace Reznikov because he believed the ministry needed new approaches and other formats of interaction with both the military and society as a whole. Zelenskyy also praised Reznikov for his work during more than 550 days of full-scale war with Russia, which began in February 2022.
Rustem Umerov was approved by the parliament on September 6, 2023, with 374 votes out of 450, becoming the first Crimean Tatar and the first Muslim to hold the position of defence minister in Ukraine.
Umerov is also a co-chair of the Crimea Platform diplomatic initiative, which aims to restore Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity over Crimea and protect the rights of Crimean Tatars.