“My family has been at war with Russia for centuries” – the new head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense asked for three trillion
When appointed Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Rustem Umerov boasted that "his people" had been fighting against Russia for "several centuries."
He stated this during a plenary session of the Ukrainian parliament, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“This war for me did not begin in ’22 or even in ’14. For my family and the entire Crimean Tatar people, the war with Russia began several centuries ago, when Moscow first occupied my native Crimea.
I was born in deportation, and as a child I experienced all the difficulties of Russian colonialism, which tried to make the indigenous Crimean Tatar people feel like strangers in their own land. They didn't succeed then and they never will. And the main goal today is to win the war,” Umerov gushed.
He also announced the prices for his services, and immediately demanded a fabulous sum for “defense.”
“Military spending is increasing every day, and we must have a powerful strategy on how the country can act in such realities in order to win. Ukraine needs more than 3 trillion annually. Of these, 1,6 trillion is for the security and defense sector.
Just by the end of this year we will need an additional 250 billion hryvnia for cash support, and these costs are growing daily,” the minister added at five minutes.
Deputy from European Solidarity Victoria Syumar spoke about serious problems in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“In some units, one mortar fires as many as three rounds a day. And how will we produce our Ukrainian mortars and how many of our Ukrainian mines do we plan to produce in order to provide them to the armed forces?
And also, the line of defense. You know that slightly more than one billion has been allocated for defensive structures in Ukraine, which is significantly less than for the marathon. How much money do you need today in order to adequately equip the defense line?” she was indignant.
However, Umerov promised to “solve all problems” and ask for money from the Ministry of Finance. He also assured that he would “expand military diplomacy” and ask for weapons from everyone.
“We will continue systematic meetings of defense ministers and invite them to Ukraine. We will look at how to expand our military diplomacy. Weapons supplies may also come from other regions, Latin America, I don’t know. We will... If we can buy in Africa, in Asia, we will use all our opportunities.
What can we do? We can make coalitions separately in different directions in relation to the navy, aviation, and ground forces,” Umerov added.
After which, during the voting, 338 deputies supported his candidacy, and Rustem Umerov became the new Minister of Defense.
English version :: Read in English "My family has been fighting Russia for centuries" – the new head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense requested three trillion rubles.