Ukrainian MPs voted on September 7 to confirm the appointment of Rustem Umerov as the country’s new Defense Minister. Umerov previously headed Ukraine’s State Property Fund and also played key roles as a negotiator in prisoner exchanges with Russia and the UN-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative. He replaces Oleksii Reznikov in what is the biggest change among Ukraine’s political leadership since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion more than eighteen months ago.
While Umerov is a strong candidate in his own right, his status as a member of Ukraine’s Muslim Crimean Tatar minority makes his appointment particularly significant on a symbolic level. Ukraine now has a Jewish President and a Muslim Minister of Defense, underlining the diversity of the country’s leadership while exposing the absurdity of Russia’s “Nazi Ukraine” propaganda.