Key areas for coming months are large-scale transformation of recruitment, tender procurement, drone supply - Fedorov

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine will focus on three key areas in the coming months: transformation of conditions for recruitment and service in the Defense Forces, building a fast procurement system without corruption risks, and launching a basic guaranteed minimum of drone supply for brigades, Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has said.

"First of all, from the first day in office, together with the president, we have been working on a comprehensive transformation of the conditions for recruitment and service in the Defense Forces. We are preparing the first projects for implementation: a fair model of financial support, a new contract system with clear terms of service and understandable logic of rotations, new approaches to staffing our units, reducing the percentage of AWOL, and others," he said at a meeting with journalists.

The minister named the "anti-corruption track" as the second point. According to him, summer will be the time of transition to tender procedures in defense procurement.

"We have already conducted the largest competitive procurement procedure for long-range 155mm artillery rounds and achieved savings of over 16%. The next step is transferring drone procurement to tenders. Our task is to build a transparent, competitive and fast procurement system without corruption risks," Fedorov noted.

In parallel, the head of the Defense Ministry added, a number of important anti-corruption reforms are being launched, in particular in the field of research and development and state quality assurance.

The third area is the launch of a basic guaranteed minimum of drone supply for brigades.

"We need every unit to understand what minimum of equipment it is guaranteed to receive next month to plan work and operations," the minister emphasized.