Mykhailo Fedorov, who headed the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine since January 2026, has said that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered him to remain in the team, specifically offering the position of advisor.
As an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reports, he stated this at a briefing in Kyiv on Thursday.
"There was a conversation yesterday with the president. He offered to become an advisor or find some other way to remain in the team. I refused the advisor position. I never had the goal of becoming a minister, remaining a minister, seeking positions for myself, and so on. In principle, today’s meeting with you is what I do, as I believe, inside, according to my values. I see that it is necessary to tell the truth. That is, you cannot be a hostage to some obligations," Fedorov said.
He emphasized that for seven years alongside the president, he carried out reforms and "was in those hot spots of the country’s transformation where I was sent."
According to Fedorov, "today the question is not about me. Today the question is about all of us."
"We either close our eyes and say: okay, let everything be as it was. Or we say: stop, the Ukrainian people actually know how to fight. The Ukrainian people in 2022 came out and showed Russia that they underestimated the Ukrainian people," Fedorov said.
He is certain that Ukrainians have the tools to stop the enemy now. "And we should not be like Russia. We must change approaches and we must tell the truth," the former minister said.
Speaking about the meeting with the president, he said that "the conversation was normal."
"...But, let’s say, the choice was probably made or will be made, I do not know. But today my task is to show what we have done and to talk about the risks that await us. Because I have been doing this for 4 years, 24/7. And I do not want to later be unable to look my children in the eyes because I did not say what is really happening," Fedorov said.
