Appointed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as the next defense minister, Rustam Omirov will oversee Ukraine’s military as it engages in some of the fiercest battles of the war with Russia. But his background is not military.
Instead, the appointment of Omirov, the former communications executive, highlights another aspect of Ukraine’s war effort: managing the sprawling military budget.
In announcing his decision on Sunday, Mr. Zelensky was curt and did not provide details about his choice. “Mr. Umarov does not need any additional introductions,” he said.
But Ukraine now spends about half of its national budget on security and defence, and its Western allies have raised concerns about money being wasted on corruption. The shake-up at the Ministry of Defense follows a series of revelations of mismanaged contracts for weapons and basic supplies such as food and winter coats.
Mr. Omirov, 41, a member of the Crimean Tatar ethnic group who is set to be Ukraine’s first Muslim cabinet minister, founded an investment firm before running for parliament in 2019. In parliament, he led a committee to oversee Ukraine’s use of foreigners. aid and, last summer, chaired a separate committee to monitor foreign donations of arms.
Anti-corruption groups saw Zelensky’s appointment of a minister with financial and anti-corruption credentials as a welcome and overdue step to bolster the military by plugging leaks in military spending.
For the past year, Mr. Omirov has been head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine, which is responsible for privatizing state assets. In the first quarter of 2023, the fund It recorded its highest revenue in 10 yearsIt made nearly $24 million from the auction of state assets, including the commercial port of Ust-Donaisk in the Odessa region.
Mr. Omirov’s deputy in the real estate fund, Oleksandr Fedorishin, said in an interview that financial management, more than military experience, was needed in the ministry, and that Mr. Omirov’s “deep experience” in accounting and finance would aid the war effort.
Mr Fedorishin said he is likely to seek changes to make contracting more transparent at the ministry, similar to those he has done at the real estate fund.
Vitaly Shabunin, director of the Anti-Corruption Centre, said the appointment “is probably the president’s best decision” because Mr. Omirov deftly ran the Privatization Agency, a pillar of government that was plagued by corruption and insider dealings.
Although he is a member of an opposition political party, Mr. Omirov has assumed several critical roles for the government since the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. He was Ukraine’s chief negotiator for the Black Sea grain deal and a lead negotiator in the negotiations. Prisoner exchange.
Mr. Omirov is a deputy of the Holos political party, which opposes Mr. Zelensky’s Servant of the People party. He acted as Ukraine’s chief negotiator in peace talks with Russian diplomats in the early months of the war, and was one of several people, including Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who was said to have experienced poisoning-related symptoms before negotiations in Istanbul in March. last year.
Crimean Tatars have been persecuted since Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, and Mr. Omirov has been clear that he is in league with Mr. Zelensky on refusing to cede any Ukrainian territory to Russia. He added that Crimea and the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine are our “red lines”. The official Turkish Anadolu news agency “We will not abandon our people or our land,” he added last year.
In Ukraine, his Tatar roots drew attention as a nod to politicians and policymakers in Europe and the United States who suggested that Ukraine give up Crimea in exchange for peace. Ukrainian commentators noted that it would be more difficult to ask the Crimean Tatars to hand over the peninsula.
Like many Tatars, Omirov was born in Uzbekistan, where his family lived in exile after Stalin expelled the Tatars from Crimea, an injustice that Tatars have compared to oppression today under Russian occupation.
Valerie Hopkins Contributed to reports.
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