Fedorov has long planned to lead Defense Ministry, has his own agenda — military analyst

"It's difficult to predict what exactly the future minister will be able to accomplish, especially since he hasn't been officially appointed yet—he still needs approval from the Verkhovna Rada. Many of us have a general understanding of the situation: Fedorov's ambitions, the rumors about Mykhailo, and how he has long aspired to lead the Ministry of Defense with his own specific plan. This is actually very important—when someone takes on a position with a clear plan, rather than just figuring things out as they go. The logic seems quite strange, to put it mildly, when the current Defense Minister gets shuffled from one position to another within the government—I'm talking about Denys Shmyhal," he said.

Vasyl Pekhno noted that if Mykhailo Fedorov becomes head of the Ministry of Defense, he may inherit a well-prepared situation, as there are reports that Denys Shmyhal has been organizing and improving the ministry during his tenure.

"People who work closely with the Ministry of Defense say that Denys Anatoliyovych has cleaned up quite serious problems in the six months or less that he's been Defense Minister. So Fedorov is stepping into a reasonably good situation. But it's hard to call this effective management when Shmyhal is being moved to a new role just as he's getting up to speed. As for what we can expect from Fedorov—I would say the key issues will be digitalization, modernization, and bringing technology to military processes, particularly procurement. Procurement needs to become more decentralized, more transparent, and faster for our servicemembers. This is an underestimated but crucially important issue," he noted.

The military analyst believes that digitalizing military procurement will be one of Fedorov's primary tasks.

"The procurement issue, specifically giving brigades more control over their own purchases and moving these systems onto digital platforms—this will probably be one of Fedorov's key tasks. Another important point is that the Ministry of Digital Transformation, which he currently leads, created projects like Brave1. Brave1 is essentially a platform that helped launch our defense startups, which have now grown into impressive and powerful Ukrainian military companies. So developing our military-industrial capacity should also be under Fedorov's purview. The third priority I would highlight is truthfulness and transparency, because we've repeatedly noted that 2025 has become a year when misinformation spread rapidly throughout various parts of the Defense Forces and Ukrainian military.

If we had digital tools that allowed, for example, the president to open an app and receive information almost directly from a soldier in a trench—that would be a major achievement by Mykhailo Fedorov. How would this work? I have some ideas. I know brigades that have built their own software systems—similar to corporate messaging apps. A soldier on the front line can report what he's missing—say, artillerymen running critically low on ammunition—and that notification goes directly to the brigade commander's phone. I know brigades where this system already works; they developed it themselves. So if Fedorov's team could develop something similar for the entire Ukrainian military, I think it would be a tremendous achievement," added Vasyl Pekhno.