Defense Minister Rustem Umerov has become a key figure in Kiev due to his foreign contacts, according to a Washington Post columnist
Kiev has remained in close touch with the US on every aspect of its contact with Russia via mediators throughout the Ukraine conflict, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov has said, according to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius.
Ukraine has officially banned all contact with Moscow as long as Vladimir Putin remains Russian president, although the two nations have been in touch via mediators on multiple issues, including regular prisoner exchanges and the now-defunct Black Sea grain initiative.
In an opinion piece in the Washington Post on Sunday, veteran journalist Ignatius – who purportedly has close ties to the US national security apparatus – provided details of an interview he held with Umerov.
The Ukrainian official is a man with “a very successful business career” whose connections in the Muslim world have allowed him to become a key intermediary, Ignatius claimed.
Those contacts led to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky picking Umerov for several cabinet-level jobs, including his current role as defense minister, according to Ignatius. He described Umerov as having a prominent role in “the kaleidoscopic feudal court” in Kiev.
Discussing the mediated talks with Russia in which he had participated, Umerov told Ignatius that the US “was always aware” of what was being negotiated behind closed doors, “because we were always consulting on every track.”
Among others, Umerov was involved in the Türkiye-mediated peace talks between Moscow and Kiev in 2022. The two parties gave preliminary agreement to a draft truce, which would have ended the hostilities in exchange for Kiev dropping its aspirations of NATO membership and accepting a cap on its military.
The proposed treaty was derailed by then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who told the Ukrainians to “just fight,” according to Kiev’s chief negotiator, MP David Arakhamia. Moscow believes that Johnson’s actions came with Washington’s blessing, as the US sought to inflict maximum damage on Russia through their Ukrainian proxies.
Earlier this month, Zelensky made public his ‘victory plan’ in the conflict, which includes an immediate invitation to NATO and a Western-backed escalation of hostilities.
The US is reviewing historical precedents of conditional accession to NATO, such as Norway becoming a founding member with the caveat that it would not host foreign troops or military bases, Ignatius said.
During the Cold War, Norway did take NATO funding to develop its own military infrastructure, such as the heavily-fortified Olavsvern submarine base. Today, the US military has direct access to 15 “military areas” in Norway, with eight additional locations added to the list this year.
