Ex-defence minister Fedorov says his defence procurement reforms contributed to his dismissal

Former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov believes that one of the reasons for his dismissal was resistance to his reforms within the Ministry of Defence, particularly changes to procurement and tender procedures that affected the interests of many individuals and companies.

Source: Fedorov in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda (English translation coming soon)

Quote: "The Defence Ministry, and I as minister, were beset by many people because we started restructuring a lot of internal processes. Judging by what began happening publicly – certain pressure, certain law enforcement agencies focusing on our work – it became clear from around early April that tensions were rising and that it would eventually lead to something.

The reasons related to procurement, tenders and the fact that we had started restructuring these processes made a lot of people very unhappy, and they then began constantly trying to influence the situation and spread negativity not only around the president, but in the media in general."

Details: Fedorov stressed that he was not fighting particular people or groups, but trying to change the system itself. Among his main priorities he named launching competitive tenders, restructuring management within the Ministry of Defence, and introducing a new approach to recruiting staff in line with the goals of the reforms.

Fedorov said that he regards pressure from various sides as part of the process and believes that in order to solve the problems, above all the ministry's fundamental operating principles have to be changed.

The former minister also said he had warned the president about a possible disinformation campaign because the reforms had affected the interests of various groups.

Quote: "Around April, I warned the president: 'Look, people are going to start coming to you saying that there's something wrong with me, that I have political ambitions, that I own drone companies, that I've violated certain processes, and so on. You need to cross-check this information with me, because I've stepped on the interests of a lot of people and companies. I need your support here.'"

Details: Fedorov said the pressure had intensified month by month and ultimately became one of the factors behind the government reshuffle and his dismissal.

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