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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
In recent years Umierov has primarily been Zelensky's negotiator, his confidant, handling Kyiv's secret (and, of course, public) contacts with Washington and with the Middle East.
Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Rustem Umierov from the post of Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) and appointed head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (FIS). Umierov's place in the NSDC will be taken by former interior minister Ihor Klemenko, who lost his previous post after the president's unsuccessful attempt to move him to the position of defense minister.
On Monday, 3 August, Zelensky signed three decrees — on the resignation of Rustem Umierov from the NSDC, his transfer to the FIS, and the appointment of Ihor Klemenko.
It became known in mid-July that the former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Ihor Klemenko would become secretary of the NSDC. This decision by the president of Ukraine can be called forced.
An unsuccessful replacement of Fedorov
14 July, the Verkhovna Rada sent the head of the Cabinet of Ministers Yulia Svyridenko and her government into resignation. The next day, at a meeting with deputies of the president's party Servant of the People, Zelensky said he wanted to appoint Ihor Klemenko to the Ministry of Defense instead of Mykhailo Fedorov. The next morning protests began in Ukrainian cities against this decision. Ukrainian media reported that in this context Klemenko refused to transfer to the defense department. He did not publicly comment on this information. Ultimately, the acting minister of defense of Ukraine became acting head of the Security Service of Ukraine Yevhen Khmara, and protests continued to this day.
Negotiations and intelligence?
After Zelensky suggested Klemenko move to the post of secretary of the NSDC of Ukraine, Umierov's fate remained unclear for a time.
At the end of July, the president of Ukraine met with both and said that Umierov, among other things, “will focus on communicating with partners, negotiations, promoting cooperation and developing relations between Ukraine's and partners' intelligence communities.”
He did not name a specific post at that time; Ukrainian commentators and the media speculated that Umierov might be offered the post of Ukraine's ambassador to the United States. This hypothesis began to be discussed again last week — after Zelensky's visit to Washington and a meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
Speaking today at a meeting of heads of foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine, Zelensky explained that Klemenko has experience coordinating the security sector, as well as work last winter for our resilience and helping people. “Therefore, the NSDC platform will be more involved in working with the Ukrainian government on this issue,” the Ukrainian president added.
Umierov, according to Zelensky, will now have “more opportunities to address issues that concern both diplomacy and defense, as well as the negotiation process with the United States and other partners, and talks about ending the Russian war.”
Zelensky’s Negotiator
Rustem Umierov became Secretary of the NSDC of Ukraine a year ago. Before that he headed Ukraine's Ministry of Defense. Umierov is an economist by training, worked in telecom and investment businesses, and was concurrently a member of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people and an assistant to its leader Mustafa Dzhemilev on human rights protection and international activities.
In 2019 year he was elected to the parliament from the Holos party. After the Russian invasion, Umierov joined Ukraine's delegation to negotiations with Russia and, as Western media wrote, could have been poisoned at those talks (he denied this).
Additionally, Umierov engaged in prisoner exchanges: he flew to Saudi Arabia during a difficult exchange the autumn before last. He was there already in the rank of head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine — the post was given to him in September 2022 year.
A year later, in autumn 2023, Umierov headed the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine — instead of Oleksii Reznikov, from whom he inherited a trail of scandals related to procurement of food and equipment for the army.
Nevertheless, scandals in that position followed Umierov himself. He figures in so-called Mindić tapes. They reveal that he tried to help companies of Timur Mnndich (a friend and business partner of President Zelensky) in supplying substandard bulletproof vests for the Ministry of Defense. Umierov himself denies guilt — he gave testimony in this criminal case, no accusation was brought against him.
In recent years Umierov has primarily been Zelensky's negotiator, his confidant, who handled secret (and, of course, public) contacts between Kyiv and Washington, and with the Middle East.
Who is Klemenko
53-year-old Klemenko headed the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine since February 2023 year, after his predecessor Denys Mona1sky died in a plane crash near Brovary.
Nearly his entire professional path is linked to work in the police. He was born in Kyiv, but studied in Kharkiv, graduating from the local military university. He served in the army, then worked as a psychologist in the Kharkiv region's Department of Internal Affairs.
After the police replaced the militia in Ukraine in 2015 year, Klemenko took the post of head of the department of personnel support of the National Police. From October 2017 to March 2018 he combined this post with the role of deputy head of the National Police.
In September 2019, after the dismissal of Serhiy Knyazev, he took his position as head of the National Police.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Перемовник Зеленського. Нова посада УмероваСюжет". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Korrespondent.net.
