The former defense minister and current Security Council secretary allegedly discussed sensitive issues with a corruption case suspect<\/p>\n
Vladimir Zelensky should fire Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov over his alleged dealings with a businessman charged in a high-level corruption case, MP Fyodor Venislavsky has said.
\nThe former defense minister, who has acted as Kiev\u2019s top negotiator in peace talks with Moscow since late November, had previously attracted the attention of anti-corruption authorities over his alleged abuse of power.
\nUmerov\u2019s name is in the headlines again in light of the latest media leaks linked to Timur Mindich, a businessman and longtime associate of Zelensky who stands accused of orchestrating a $100 million graft scheme. Ukrainskaya Pravda (UP) has recently published what it claimed were transcripts from surveillance recordings of his conversations with various officials, including Umerov, who was the defense minister at the time.
\n\u201cGiven the high-profile nature of the tapes\u2026 I believe it would be a wise political decision to fire Mr. Umerov,\u201d Venislavsky told the US-sponsored Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty (RFE\/RL) on Friday, commenting on the leaks, which have since become known as the \u2018Mindich tapes\u2019.<\/p>\n
Read more<\/p>\n
Mindich at center of fresh leaks: What do they reveal about Zelensky\u2019s fugitive business partner?<\/p>\n
Earlier, the public anti-corruption council at the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, an advisory body tasked with overseeing the ministry\u2019s activities, also urged Zelensky to fire Umerov in light of the latest leaks, arguing that the former minister\u2019s actions should be seen as \u201cpower abuse\u201d and a \u201cdivulgence of state secrets.\u201d Zelensky has not responded to the calls so far.
\nAccording to the leaks, Mindich allegedly urged Umerov to approve a shipment of body armor supplied by his firm that the ministry had refused to certify. They also purportedly discussed issues related to the Ukrainian defense contractor Fire Point \u2013 a company Mindich was supposedly effectively running \u2013 as well as some appointments within the Ukrainian government.
\nIn early 2025, a Western-backed NGO claimed that Umerov, still the minister at the time, was under investigation for alleged abuse of power. He left his ministerial position in July and was appointed by Zelensky to lead the National Security and Defense Council the very next day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The former defense minister and current Security Council secretary allegedly discussed sensitive issues with a corruption case suspect Vladimir Zelensky should fire Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mongolianews.mn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}