Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Saturday that a delegation led by Security Council Secretary Rust Umerov was on his way to the United States to continue negotiations on an agreement to end the Russian war.
In 2022, Umerov headed Ukraine’s sovereign wealth fund, but was best known for negotiating with Russia and organizing successful prisoner exchanges, the BBC previously reported. Umerov took over as head of the Ukrainian delegation after Zelensky’s powerful chief of general staff, Andriy Yermak, abruptly resigned on Friday – just hours after anti-corruption investigators searched his apartment.
In a post on social media X, Zelenskyy said he expected the results of previous meetings with the US in Geneva last weekend to be “hammered out” on Sunday.
Who is Rustem Umerov?
Rustem Umerov replaced Andriy Yermak as Secretary of the Security Council of Ukraine. Although Umerov is not completely unknown to Ukrainian politics, he was – reportedly – rarely in the public eye. Born in exile, the Crimean Tatar is an active member of the ethnic community.
Rustem Umerov entered politics in 2019 when he ran for parliament with the reform party “Holos”, which he later left to become a government official.
Before that he worked in the private sector, first in telecommunications and later in investments.
What did Zelensky say?
Speaking about the peace talks, Zelensky posted on X that Rustem had already reported on Saturday.
“Rustem reported today, and the task is clear: quickly and objectively work out the steps necessary to end the war,” Zelenskiy wrote on X.
Meanwhile, hours after his resignation, Yermak told the New York Post hours after his resignation that he was “going to the front.” “I am an honest and decent person,” he said.
Yermak was a key partner with Kiev’s Western allies and was widely considered the second most powerful man in the Ukrainian government, the Politico report noted.
The planned talks in Florida come after the Trump administration unveiled a 28-point peace plan that Ukraine and European allies have criticized as being too pro-Russian.
US-backed peace deal
on Tuesday, November 25, US President Donald Trump declared that negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine war were nearing an end and announced parallel missions to Moscow and Kiev as part of efforts to complete a proposed US-drafted peace plan.
Trump said the original 28-point US peace proposal, drawn up by Washington and widely criticized as accommodating Russian demands, had been “tweaked” with “additional input from both sides”. Only a few points of disagreement remain, he said, without elaborating.
