From pitching a fitness blog to Ukraine's war ministry: Mykhailo Fedorov's eight-year rise beside Zelenskyy
Ukrainska Pravda has published an extensive profile of Mykhailo Fedorov, who rose from a digital marketing specialist in Zaporizhzhia to become Ukraine's digital transformation minister and later defence minister, a trajectory that reportedly now puts him at odds with President Zelenskyy's inner circle.
In July 2018, 27-year-old digital marketer and small business owner Mykhailo Fedorov travelled from Zaporizhzhia to Kyiv to pitch a promotional concept for "Ze Kubiki", a little-known fitness blog featuring Volodymyr Zelenskyy, then a popular television producer and actor. During the meeting at Zelenskyy's Kvartal 95 studio, the conversation unexpectedly shifted: Zelenskyy asked whether it was possible to build a state where all government services were available online within minutes. Fedorov said it could be done, and that exchange marked the start of nearly eight years of collaboration between the two men.
Fedorov went on to follow Zelenskyy into politics, ran on his party's list, and became Ukraine's first minister of digital transformation. In that role he created the Diia government services app, introduced electronic documents, and established a special tax regime for the IT industry. He later shifted his focus to military technology, becoming defence minister and pursuing tools that would allow Ukraine to respond asymmetrically to Russia, including in combat drone development.
The profile also traces Fedorov's background growing up in Vasylivka near Zaporizhzhia, an environment shaped by post-Soviet and prison-culture influences, where he played competitive chess and worked in watermelon fields as a teenager to earn money. He got his first computer in eighth grade, partly funded by a loan his grandmother took out, and later studied at Zaporizhzhia National University.
Supporters reportedly describe Fedorov as the best defence minister Ukraine has had since independence, while critics call him a dangerous upstart who has become a spent force. The article also references Andrii Yermak as an influential but largely unseen figure within Zelenskyy's circle, and Elon Musk in connection with Starlink technology.
