Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada voted to appoint former minister of digital transformation Mykhailo Fedorov as minister of defense. A total of 277 MPs backed the move.
News of Fedorov’s appointment came during a live broadcast of the Verkhovna Rada session on January 14. Lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak of the Holos party said all factions supported the decision.
In all, 277 voted in favor, none opposed, nine abstained and 32 did not vote. Fedorov then took the oath of office as Ukraine’s defense minister from the parliamentary rostrum.
“My first task is to conduct a real financial audit at the Ministry of Defense, to understand how we need to function this year when the ministry received 300 billion hryvnias less than last year, to deal with the human capital already in the Defense Forces, and only after that to forecast further actions,” Fedorov said in remarks before the vote.
President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed that Digital Transformation Minister Fedorov take over the defense portfolio on January 2. The president noted that Fedorov has been “deeply involved in drones” and has delivered strong results in digitizing government services and processes, saying he could bring more technological capability to the Defense Forces.
The Rada voted to dismiss Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov on January 13, but a subsequent move that day to proceed to a vote on his defense appointment did not receive enough support.
