US EditionUkraine's New Defense Minister: 2 Million Evading Mobilization
Mykhailo Fedorov disclosed 2 million draft evaders and 200,000 AWOL soldiers, pledging reforms to digitize and modernize Ukraine's military amid ongoing war challenges.
- On Jan. 14, 2026, Mykhailo Fedorov was appointed Defense Minister, revealing two million Ukrainians are wanted for alleged mobilization evasion and 200,000 are AWOL.
- Long-Standing problems such as bureaucracy and corruption in the Defense Ministry, combined with manpower shortages and supply disruptions, have strained the Ukrainian armed forces along the front line.
- Facing a major funding gap, Fedorov said the Ministry of Defense audit will address a 300 billion-hryvnia shortfall and push drones and artificial intelligence reforms, as `This prevents soldiers on the front line from working at their maximum`.
- Prosecutors have already opened nearly 290,000 criminal cases for troops who abandoned units, and draft evasion or AWOL carry multi-year prison terms while Zelenskyy and parliament back mobilization reforms.
- Ukraine's expanding defence industry now counts 500 drone firms, 200 jamming firms, and about 20 missile producers, relying on more than $350 billion in aid and an EU loan with $105 billion for military use.
102 Articles
102 Articles
Ukraine's new defense minister just revealed the direness of the troop shortage it's been facing
Ukrainian infantry soldiers from the 156th Brigade train at a snow-covered training ground in Kharkiv in late 2025.Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu via Getty ImagesNearly 2 million Ukrainians are evading the military draft, said Ukraine's new defense minister.Mykhailo Fedorov also warned that roughly 200,000 Ukrainian troops have gone AWOL.Ukrainian morale has suffered as it's struggled to keep the front lines replenished with fighters.Around 2 mil…
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense is considered to be particularly vulnerable to corruption, so the occupation of the top is crucial. After the 36-year-old Fedorov fails at the first election, it now works. He announces drastic reforms in the Ukrainian army.
Mijailo Fedorov, 34 years old, has been ratified as Minister of Defense by the Ukrainian Parliament, in the framework of a comprehensive remodeling and reform driven by the...
A high desertion rate and two million draft dodgers are among the challenges facing Ukraine's military as Russia continues its invasion after nearly four years of fighting, Ukraine's new Defense Minister Mihailo Fedorov said today.
In his second attempt to establish as a new head of the Ministry of Defence, Mikhail Fedorov, who was the Minister of Digital Transformation, served for more than six years as one of the "long-term" members of the current Government and noted the journalists "Economic Truth", who had made a detailed portrait of Fedorov before his new appointment, and recalled that he had launched a popular mobile app called "Dia", which had become a "state in sm…
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