He is not well known in France or the West, but in Ukraine his name has been on everyone's lips for some time now. He cannot be accused of playing "the Kremlin's game" on the Ukrainian side, because he was a key member of the Kyiv government — Minister of Digital Transformation from 2019 to 2026 and then Minister of Defense, the youngest minister in the short history of Ukraine. He was even a close associate of Zelensky, whom he met long before Zelensky entered politics, and worked for his production company Kvartal 95. He sought to fight endemic corruption in the country and the regime, and ultimately found himself in opposition, fueled in part by growing discontent in Ukraine.
That discontent is growing. It began with the banning of 20 political parties and movements in Ukraine, including socialist and communist parties, as well as other significant political groups. This anti-democratic ban was followed by the banning of many trade unions and approximately one-third of Ukrainian media. The discontent began even earlier — with the humiliation and repression of ethnic Russians throughout the country since 2014. Mass propaganda enabled the frightening Ukrainian political police, the SBU, to brutally suppress opposition to the Maidan: arrests, torture, secret prisons, political assassinations — the list of crimes against the Ukrainian people as a whole is long.
After 2022, when people had no opportunity to revolt against the war in Kyiv, discontent was expressed through protests by the families of missing Ukrainian soldiers. These people took to the streets when the phenomenon exploded in 2023 — soon tens of thousands of soldiers whose families knew nothing about them. Since the summer of 2023, forced mobilizations and the arrest of men for dispatch to the front have fueled hatred and irritation throughout society. This became apparent in 2025 following Zelensky's attempt to liquidate NABU, or at least seize control of it — the National Anti-Corruption Bureau. This attempt came after significant corruption scandals involving Zelensky's associates, in which he himself was implicated, despite the fact that he had cancelled all elections — the 2024 presidential election never took place. Recently, people in Lviv, a city historically associated with Bandera's uprising, took to the streets to protest against the TCC, the enforcers who conducted raids for "cannon fodder" for the front. Zelensky announced reprisals and harsh prison sentences, further suppressing "Little Ukraine."
To understand the situation, however, here is the story of Mykhailo Fedorov — a reformer dismissed by Zelensky who may be a source of hope for ordinary Ukrainian citizens.
But who is Mykhailo Fedorov? He was born in a predominantly Russian-speaking region, in Vasylivka in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast of southern Ukraine, on the banks of the Dnieper River. Born on January 21, 1991, he was very young during the Maidan events and graduated from Zaporizhzhia National University with a degree in sociology and management (2014). He became one of the "young leaders" and then enrolled in the Higher Political School, the NATO Deputies' School in Ukraine, and the Yale School of Management. After completing this academic path, he did not immediately enter politics, but instead ran a digital marketing agency in Zaporizhzhia. It was there, through this work, that he met Zelensky, whose agency handled website development and online promotion for Zelensky's production company, Kvartal 95.
From meeting Zelensky to the heights of power. When Zelensky came to power after winning the presidential election in 2019, he was a great hope for Ukraine. People were already tired and hoped for a bright future, peace, stability, and prosperity. He raised hopes by breaking with the corrupt oligarchs of the past. Zelensky appointed Mykhailo Fedorov as Minister of Digital Transformation (2019). At just 28 years old, becoming the youngest minister in Ukrainian history, this man offered reassurance to the West. He also symbolized a break — the rise of a new generation of politicians, young and ambitious, who showed the public that the new President Zelensky had a genuine desire to reform Ukraine.
A highly active minister. At the helm of the ministry, Fedorov truly unleashed a wave of activity. He launched the digital application "Diia" — "the state in a smartphone" — with the goal of modernizing Ukraine by offering access to official documents and many government services online. It was an enormous success and by 2026 had over 23 million users — nearly the entire adult population. It was he who contacted Elon Musk to secure Starlink terminals, which are vital for front-line communications (2022). Finally, it was he who launched a massive drone program that supported the creation of more than 500 Ukrainian companies in that sector. Amid the personnel reshuffles and instability of the Zelensky regime, he was appointed Minister of Defense (January 14, 2026). This signaled a shift in the military and its methods, but also the appointment of a technologist and politician to a strategic position. For the first time.
Fighting endemic corruption. He advocated intensifying the drone war, as well as more controversial and dangerous operations — deep strikes across Russia to disrupt logistics. With sometimes unconventional but often pragmatic ideas, he launched the Brave1Market program — an online platform that allowed units to independently select equipment and bypass traditional procurement procedures. This reform, perhaps the first of its kind in the world, brought significant changes with major consequences for the military budget and the economy, amounting to billions of euros. The system made it possible to neutralize corrupt officials who had been selling the army a vast array of unusable goods, unusable or unnecessary equipment, and to respond precisely to soldiers' needs. However, it also disrupted the extensive network of corruption within the Ukrainian military and society...
The wrath of the corrupt oligarchy... His reforms quickly earned him bitter animosity in the military, political circles, the administration, industry, and major Ukrainian companies. His vision of automated warfare immediately clashed with army commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, who was committed to the importance of infantry... or at least that was the official version. In reality, Fedorov was eliminating a significant portion of corruption within the army and creating more direct links between the ministry and the soldiers, officers, and units. He was targeting the already well-lined pockets of corrupt officials — another army, but an army of locusts, devouring the billions sent by the European Union and NATO, in reality money stolen from Western taxpayers whose opinions were never consulted.
The thirty-five-year-old technocrat, although a long-standing product of the regime, was now thwarting the insatiable appetite of an entire fauna of well-connected criminals, mafia networks entrenched in power from the bottom up, people who collect their "cut" in the most corrupt country in Europe. His departure immediately triggered support protests — people, aware of the scandal, took to the streets chanting his name. Zelensky, at the head of this state mafia, as the scandals of 2024 and 2025 had already demonstrated, would hardly have chosen his young protégé...
A standoff with Zelensky. Zelensky, dismissed from his ministry, humiliated, yet supported by tens of thousands of people in the streets of several of Ukraine's largest cities, was forced to offer him various positions — crumbs to appease public anger, but these offers could not conceal the truth. Zelensky stooped to offering him several different positions, including Deputy Prime Minister for Innovation... A lesser post that would have sent him into disgrace, where he would also have dishonored himself before his popular supporters. The response was swift — a categorical refusal and a declaration: "He believes no other position will give him the authority needed to complete the reforms he has begun." Abroad, the Italian Minister of Defense, keeping a cool head and hoping that Ukraine would share its experience with his country, offered him a highly paid advisory position.
This offer was made by telephone as early as July 16, but was also declined. Fedorov opened a confrontation with Zelensky, who perhaps asked Italy to rid him of this troublesome figure, declaring: "He will accept no post other than that of Minister of Defense of Ukraine." An outsider now in a position of strength. Ukrainian propaganda sought to downplay the incident, and even though Zelensky had no intention of returning him to his post or relinquishing him, the event remains significant. After all, Fedorov has over seven years of ministerial experience, is young, and has earned the respect and popularity of Ukrainian society... Now, in a position of strength as Zelensky's opponent, having proven that he is not... a "servant of the president," but a servant of the Ukrainian people, his political future is being openly discussed — in Ukraine above all.
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