Ukraine’s New Defence Minister Vows Zero Tolerance of Corruption

The appointment of a Crimean Tatar with a proven track record of managing privatisation and arms deliveries sends a powerful signal that Ukraine has not given up on taking back its territories.

The appointment of Rustem Umerov as the new minister of defence ticks so many boxes in terms of giving Ukraine’s war effort new impetus that one may be forgiven for thinking it’s too good to be true.

A former businessman and member of the opposition Holos (Voice) party, Umerov is a Crimean Tatar who was handpicked by President Volodymir Zelenskyy to replace Oleksiy Reznikov, whose strong track record in leading the war effort in the early months was marred by a wave of corruption scandals at the ministry.

Focus on corruption and arms production 

In his first speech as a minister, Umerov announced an audit of the defence ministry and said his operational priority was to prepare the infrastructure for the deployment of dozens of F-16 jets Western partners have donated to Ukraine, seen as crucial for successfully challenging Russia’s air superiority.

“Among the important strategic tasks is that we must increase the defence capabilities of Ukrainian manufacturers. Everything that can be produced in Ukraine should be produced in Ukraine,” he said.

Addressing long-standing concerns that some of the Western military aid was misused, he assured parliament before his 6 September appointment that eradicating malpractices and corruption would be his top task.

Reports of scandals around procurement and conscription have outraged Ukrainian troops at the front. High morale has been a critical factor in Ukraine’s successes against numerically superior but poorly motivated Russian troops. Zelenskyy can hardly afford to undermine the fighting spirit of his citizens’ army.

“There will be zero tolerance for corruption in the Ukrainian defence ministry,” Umerov stated. “Each stolen hryvnia costs the lives and safety of our soldiers. In my book, corrupt officials are equal to terrorists, and there is no negotiation with terrorists.”

Ukraine and Western allies have seen such declarations before. But Umerov brings with him a track record of actually running a clean and efficient operation as head of the State Property Fund (SPFU), the country’s privatisation agency that is also in charge of running the defence industry.

In charge of the agency from September 2022 until his latest appointment, Umerov and his professional team privatised more than 400 companies, including the Ust-Dunaysk seaport, hotels, real estate in Kyiv and Lviv as well as some distilleries.

On 11 September, Umerov held his first conversation with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to lay the ground for next week’s meeting of Western arms donors, the so-called Ramstein Group. This follows a trip to Kyiv by Antony Blinken, the Secretary of State, last week, during which he pledged an additional $200 million worth of deliveries.

Smart appointment 

Vitaliy Shabunin, head of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, believes that appointing Umerov as defence minister will prove to be one of Zelenskyy’s best decisions.

“A person’s actions in the next job are best judged by their results in the previous position,” he said, adding that Umerov’s success was also the efficient transfer of Western weapons to frontline units in a way that did not compromise secrecy.

“Firstly, from the first days of the war, Umerov has been running a close shop supplying heavy weapons from (donor) countries, without public disclosure.”

Umerov was also apparently involved in a group of officials conducting all secret negotiations on releasing prisoners of war – more than 2,000 of Ukrainian POWs have been released, including Azovstal fighters.

Journalist and civic activist Daria Kaleniuk wrote that she was pleasantly surprised by Umerov’s work advocating weapons for Ukraine.

“He has been very quietly doing things that the Ministry of Defense has failed to do for the past year and a half. Rustem is one of the few in the government with a coherent strategic vision of how the country’s security and defence sector should work. He is a manager with practical experience in managing complex teams,” she commented.

Turkey and Middle East ties 

According to Ukrainian media, Turkic-speaking Umerov personally knows Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and has direct contact with his right-hand man Ibrahim Kalin. As a parliamentarian, Umerov has visited Turkey several times to report on Russia’s suppression and violence against the Tatars in Crimea, which historically has ties to Turkey.

“I know for sure that Crimean Tatars will not leave their homeland and will not reconcile with the temporary occupation of Crimea,”  he stated at a conference in Ankara back in 2021.

The appointment of a Crimean Tatar at a crucial moment in the Ukrainian counter-offensive seems to have been timed to signal to those in the West who more or less openly suggest Ukraine will have to accept the loss of the peninsula in return for peace.

Analysts believe Umerov will play a diplomatic role in trying to weaken support for Russia among some Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, through official and unofficial channels.

Umerov was born in 1982 in Bulungur, Uzbek SSR, to a family of immigrants from Crimea. He graduated from the National Academy of Management with a degree in economics and finance. For seven years, he worked at the Turkish telecommunication company Lifecell.

Editor’s pick: India, backed by the US and Europe, launches alternative to Belt and Road 

Before entering politics, Umerov was a businessman, investor and adviser to the leader of the Crimean Tatar people, Mustafa Dzhemilev.

Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak – a former colleague of Umerov, describes him as a Western-style manager who participated in the Stanford emerging leaders’ programme, has strong connections with US officials and personally knows many Middle Eastern leaders.

“Umerov has a Western education, was in Stanford, but also has personal contacts in the East, including with the sheikhs. So, he has a unique position as a person that has connections in the East and Western approach,” said Zeleznyak.

Umerov has ties to Saudi Arabia and was part of the Ukrainian delegation to the recent peace conference in Jeddah.

Since August 2019, Umerov has been a parliamentarian from the Holos opposition faction and secretary of the Committee on Human Rights, De-Occupation and Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories.

During his time in the Verkhovna Rada, Umerov was co-chairman of the Crimean Platform parliamentary association and a member of the Ukrainian negotiating group with Russia.

Reznikov’s fall from grace 

Reznikov’s resignation was already discussed in February 2023 amid a corruption scandal in the Ministry of Defense over purchasing food for the Ukrainian Armed Forces at inflated prices. However, Zelenskyy kept Reznikov in the office due to his effective cooperation with Western allies.

However, in August, a report from an investigation showed that the Ministry of Defense had signed a contract with a Turkish company to supply winter clothing for the military in autumn 2022. According to the investigation, the ordered jackets turned from camouflage to winter air protection on the way between customs and tripled in price.

Although not personally implicated, Reznikov became a political liability to Zelenskyy, especially as discussions have picked pace over whether the country should hold a presidential election in due course next year despite the ongoing war.

Zelenskyy has made it clear he would run for re-election. Although he is a front-runner, rivals are likely to emerge, and failure on the front or lack of success in the fight against corruption could weaken his hand. Conversely, Umerov’s success as defence minister could be a boon for the president.

_

Published as part of our Future of Ukraine Fellowship programme. Learn more about it here and consider contributing.

The featured image comes from the Presidential Office of Ukraine. All materials featured on this site are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.

• Corruption
• Rule of Law
• Security
• Ukraine