His name was proposed to everyone’s surprise on January 2 by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. After a positive vote from the Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, on Wednesday January 14, it is now official: Mykhaïlo Fedorov, until now Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation, has been appointed head of the Ministry of Defense. Little known to the general public, the 34-year-old is nevertheless the only member of the government to have survived all the government reshuffles since the election of Volodymyr Zelensky in 2019. Appointed six months earlier, in July 2025, his predecessor at Defense Denys Chmyhal was moved to the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy.
If the appointment of the young entrepreneur may have been surprising, it is perfectly logical for the Ukrainian president: “Mykhaïlo is deeply involved in issues related to the drone line and works very effectively on the digitalization of public services and processes, detailed Volodymyr Zelensky in his daily message on January 2. Together with our entire army, the army command, national arms producers and Ukrainian partners, we must implement changes in the defense sector that will be useful.”
Founder of a social media marketing strategy company, SMM Studio, and graduate of the University of Zapirizhia, his region of birth, Mykhaïlo Fedorov is a UFO within the Ukrainian executive. “I feel like a start-up within the government,” he himself confided in 2023 in an interview with the independent Ukrainian media Liga.net, admitting that he does not consider himself a politician. While his name was being circulated to potentially take over as head of government, he was already rejecting the option: “I don’t want to be prime minister. I hope that never happens.”
“More robots means less losses”
In a few years, Mykhaïlo Fedorov has established himself as the key negotiator with the Tech giants. From the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, he stood out by calling on the multinationals, one by one, on social networks to stop their activities with Russia. “Our messages on Twitter are only the tip of the iceberg. At the same time, my team spends its time exchanging by email, SMS, Zoom with companies and organizing meetings with them,” he confided to L’Express in August 2022. Most companies have joined our approach by imposing sanctions, leaving the Russian market and ceasing to update their equipment on site. This is how Ukraine was able to benefit from Elon Musk’s Starlink terminals, bypassing internet cuts in the front zones.
A central player in the digital transformation of the Ukrainian army since the start of the war, the thirty-year-old is particularly at the heart of the use of drones, the main successes of the Ukrainian army, to identify and eliminate Russian troops. A program of 400 drone units which reached a new peak last September when Ukraine sent its first homemade Shmavic drones to the front. If the drone is not entirely manufactured in Ukraine, it still reduces dependence on the Chinese drone manufacturer DJI. At the same time, Mykhaïlo Fedorov coordinated a contingent of tens of thousands of volunteer hackers who attacked Russian IT services. At the head of the Ministry of Defense, he intends to continue his modernization efforts. “More robots means less casualties, more technology means fewer deaths. The lives of Ukrainian heroes are of the highest value“he declared Wednesday to the elected representatives of the Rada.
Budgetary and human challenge
Another innovation from the minister-geek: the Diia application. Launched in 2020, it allows Ukrainians to have access to government services directly via their smartphone, in particular to combat bureaucracy. Generalized during Covid-19, Diia is now used as a military tool: Ukrainian citizens can alert the army of the presence of Russian troops, drones or explosive objects. This all-purpose application also allows “to make donations to the army in a few clicks, to obtain digital documents for people who have had to flee their home without their papers, or to benefit from public financial aid via an application”, as detailed by L’Express in 2022.
But the young politician will not be able to rely on his digital skills to succeed at the head of the Defense portfolio. Faced with Russia’s aggression, Mykhaïlo Fedorov is aware that he will have to face a budgetary and human challenge. “The Department of Defense comes into my hands with a deficit of 300 billion dollars [6,7 millions de dollars, NDLR]two million Ukrainians who are wanted [pour avoir échappé à la mobilisation, NDLR] and 200,000 who are absent”. According to the Kyiv Postthe new government strongman announced an in-depth audit of his ministry to improve its financial management. He also promised reforms on troop training and recruitment, to reduce battlefield casualties. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) estimates Ukrainian losses between 60,000 and 100,000 soldiers in 2025.
