People’s Deputy from the “Servant of the People” faction and member of the parliamentary committee on national security, defense, and intelligence, Fedir Venislavskyi expressed the opinion that the dismissal of the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Rustem Umierov would be a prudent political decision. In his view, the resonance surrounding the published conversations related to Umierov requires decisive steps to maintain trust in the authorities.
This is reported by Kyiv24
Reactions from deputies and details of the case
The question of the appropriateness of Rustem Umierov’s position as Secretary of the NSDC was also raised by his colleague from the faction, Anastasia Radina. She recently stated that Umierov should resign. According to the current procedure, the decision to appoint or dismiss the Secretary of the NSDC falls within the competence of the President of Ukraine.
On April 29, 2026, fragments of conversations were published, which, according to journalists, were recorded by detectives of the NABU within the investigation of the “Midas” case. These recordings were made in the apartment of businessman Timur Mindich, who is suspected of corruption in the energy sector and is currently under sanctions.
“In my opinion, given the resonance of those tapes that we heard during his tenure as Minister of Defense, I think so. It would be a wise political decision to dismiss Mr. Umierov to demonstrate that even the mere suspicion that this took place and is related to his professional duties as Minister of Defense clearly dissonated with the interests of the state, I believe that would be absolutely the right decision,” he said.
Circumstances and positions of the parties
The publication notes that the conversations took place in the summer of 2025 involving then-Minister of Defense and now Secretary of the NSDC Rustem Umierov. According to journalists, these conversations discussed the possible appointment of Umierov as ambassador to the USA, as well as issues of financing and production of long-range weapons by Fire Point, including models FP-1, FP-5, and FP-7. Businessman Mindich complained to Umierov about insufficient funding for Fire Point.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau has not yet provided official comments regarding the content of these conversations. The press service of Rustem Umierov emphasized that establishing the authenticity and truthfulness of the recordings should be the task of law enforcement agencies.
Denys Shtilerman, co-owner and chief designer of Fire Point, appealed to the NABU to confirm the authenticity of the published fragments. In his opinion, the dissemination of false information about Fire Point’s activities harms both the company’s reputation and the country’s defense capability.
Timur Mindich’s lawyer reported that the defense team had not received any audio recordings or their transcripts within the framework of the criminal proceedings, and therefore cannot confirm their authenticity.
According to the investigation, one of the beneficiaries of Fire Point may be Mindich, but he categorically denies any involvement with this enterprise. It is known that Fire Point, founded in 2022, has taken a leading position among Ukrainian manufacturers of long-range UAVs – in August-September 2025 alone, more than half of the drones used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine were produced by this company.
On November 10, 2025, the NABU reported the exposure of a criminal organization that received illegal benefits from contracts with “Energoatom”. Eight individuals were suspected in this case, including businessman Timur Mindich (identified in the tapes as “Carlson”). According to law enforcement sources, Mindich left Ukraine on the night of November 10, and sanctions have already been imposed on him by the NSDC. In a comment to “Ukrainska Pravda,” he stated that he has no intention of returning to Ukraine and considers all accusations to be “manipulations.”