Ukraine's new defence minister vows innovation on battlefield

Ukraine's new defence minister vows innovation on battlefield

Ukraine's Defence Strategy and Leadership Changes

By Olena Harmash and Yuliia Dysa

Appointment of Mykhailo Fedorov

KYIV, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Ukraine's parliament appointed young technocrat Mykhailo Fedorov as defence minister on Wednesday as the government seeks to drive innovation to strengthen the military during a difficult phase of the nearly four-year war.

Challenges Facing the New Minister

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had ordered Fedorov, 34, to implement fast decisions to protect Ukraine's skies, strengthen supplies to the front line and introduce other technological solutions to stop Russian advances.

Military and Energy Sector Reforms

"We immediately identified the first priorities for the ministry of defence. The main one is air defence," Zelenskiy said in a post on X after meeting Fedorov.

Response to Corruption Scandals

The exhausted Ukrainian army is outmanned and outgunned on the battlefield after Russia's invasion in February 2022. Russian forces are steadily grinding forward in the eastern Donetsk region and trying to punch through defence lines in the south and northeast.

With diplomatic efforts to end the war failing to produce tangible results, Kyiv needs to strengthen its armed forces, which total around 1 million personnel. 

Zelenskiy said "much broader changes" were needed in the system for mobilising troops for the war.

"Decisions have already been made to ensure a more equitable distribution of personnel among combat brigades," he said.

Parliament voted to extend martial law and mobilisation until May, the 18th time since Russia's full-scale invasion. 

NEW DEFENCE CHIEF TO DRIVE INNOVATION  

Fedorov has already played an important role in shaping Ukraine's high-tech response to Russia's invasion in previous roles as the first deputy prime minister and digital transformation minister.

"Today, it is impossible to fight with new technologies using an old organisational structure," Fedorov told lawmakers before the vote, promising sweeping changes.

"Our goal is to change the system: to reform the army, improve infrastructure on the front lines, eradicate lies and corruption, and make leadership and trust a new culture." 

Fedorov was instrumental in creating a "drone line" — a defensive line of drones meant to inflict maximum damage on Russian troops. He also helped improve connectivity for Ukraine's forces at the front line by deploying Starlink terminals. 

Along with strengthening its defence efforts, Ukraine needs to implement big changes to stabilise the battered energy sector. Parliament appointed Denys Shmyhal, a former prime minister, as the new energy minister. 

Shmyhal, one of the country's most experienced government officials, faces the dual challenge of keeping Ukraine's lights on despite heavy Russian attacks while also cleaning up the energy sector.

His predecessor was dismissed in November after anti-corruption agencies uncovered a scheme to skim $100 million from Ukraine's state nuclear energy company.

Both new ministers take up their positions weeks after a corruption scandal in the energy sector that caused Ukraine's biggest wartime political crisis and led to widespread public anger at Zelenskiy's government.

Following that, Zelenskiy replaced several security officials and placed a popular spy chief at the centre of his administration as his chief of staff.

(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa, Olena Harmash; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Rod Nickel)