Umerov’s appointment as head of the delegation came after the resignation of Yermak, who also held the position of Director of the Office of Zelensky. In a statement to the “New York Post” hours after his resignation, Yermak said he was “heading to the front,” and praised his successor, describing him as “an honest and respectable person.”
Umerov is 43 years old and has held the position of Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council since July 18, 2025, succeeding Oleksandr Lytvynenko. He served as Minister of Defense between September 2023 and July 2025, where he oversaw extensive reforms and participated in peace negotiations and prisoner exchanges with Russia. He also served as a Member of Parliament for the “Holos” party between 2019 and 2022.
Umerov was born on April 19, 1982, in the city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan, to a Muslim family of Crimean Tatars who were exiled during the Soviet era, before the family returned to Crimea in the late 1980s. Umerov is fluent in English and Turkish in addition to Ukrainian.
He obtained a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in finance from the National Academy of Management in Ukraine, and participated in the American FLEX exchange program during high school, according to the “newsukraine” website. He began his career in the telecommunications sector in 2004, then moved to investment and business management, and then to political work. One of his most prominent achievements is his participation in drafting the Black Sea Grain Corridor Agreement sponsored by Turkey and the United Nations about two years ago.
These developments come amid increasing US pressure on Ukraine to agree to the terms of a peace agreement, while Zelensky faces a difficult political and military situation considered the most complex since the beginning of the Russian invasion in 2022.
A corruption scandal in the energy sector worth $100 million led to the dismissal of two ministers, followed by the resignation of one of the president’s most prominent aides. In contrast, Russia continues to make field progress on the front lines, while Ukrainian cities suffer from long power outages due to the continuous bombing of energy infrastructure.
