Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov enters the orbit of Italian Defense. Following his meeting in Rome with Minister Guido Crosetto, Fedorov has accepted the position of Advisor for Defense Innovation, making available to Italy the experience gained by Ukraine over more than four years of war at very high technological intensity.

The assignment will be carried out on a voluntary basis and will not involve Fedorov's relocation to Italy: the former minister will continue to live and work in Ukraine, keeping as a priority the programs related to Kiev's defense.

Crosetto's discussion: drones, unmanned systems and air defense

The discussion between Crosetto and Fedorov focused on some of the sectors that are most rapidly transforming the contemporary battlefield: drones, autonomous systems, air defense and development of the Defense technology ecosystem.

Crosetto explained that the meeting was an opportunity to deepen the experience gained by the former Ukrainian minister in the field of digital innovation applied both to public administration and to the military sector.

For the Italian minister, it is no longer sufficient to possess advanced technologies: it is necessary above all to be able to rapidly transform experimentation into operational capabilities available on a large scale.

Modern conflicts, Crosetto emphasized, indeed require development and production processes that are much faster, capable of combining the technical excellence of the national industry with response times compatible with the very rapid evolution of the battlefield.

Fedorov: «I will help Italy adopt modern warfare technologies»

Fedorov personally confirmed his new assignment, thanking Crosetto for the trust and support received.

The declared objective is to transfer part of the experience gained by Ukraine in the war against Russia to the Italian defense system, helping Rome develop and integrate the technologies that are changing the way of fighting.

«In this role, I will help Italy adopt modern warfare technologies», Fedorov explained, also indicating the strengthening of the defense industry and adaptation to new international threats as priorities.

The central point is precisely Ukrainian experience. Since 2022, Kiev has become one of the world's largest laboratories for operational use of FPV drones, long-range UAVs, terrestrial robotic systems, command and control software, artificial intelligence and unmanned systems produced on a large scale.

Technologies that are developed, tested in the field, modified and deployed again in cycles often much faster than traditional Western military programs.

Ukraine as a laboratory of technological warfare

Fedorov has been one of the men most associated with Ukraine's technological transformation.

Before taking on the Defense role, he had led the Ministry of Digital Transformation and promoted numerous programs related to innovation. Subsequently, his role extended directly to the military component and the growth of the drone industry.

The Russian-Ukrainian war has indeed shown how technological advantage does not depend exclusively on the availability of the most sophisticated system, but also on the ability to produce it rapidly, update it continuously and distribute it in large quantities to operational units.

This is exactly one of the models that Rome seems intent on studying.

Fedorov himself maintains that the experience gained by Kiev could represent the foundation for a new European defense model, based on the ability to rapidly experiment with new solutions and transform them equally quickly into industrial production.

A possible acceleration for Italian industry as well

Fedorov's arrival as advisor could assume particular relevance precisely for Italy.

Our country indeed has an important defense industry and advanced expertise in electronics, sensor technology, aerospace, radar systems and unmanned platforms.

The problem posed by the most recent wars concerns increasingly the time.

A technologically excellent system that requires years to be designed, financed, certified and produced risks arriving in the field when operational needs have already changed.

Ukrainian experience, on the other hand, follows a fundamentally different model: development, operational testing, feedback from military personnel and product updating can occur within weeks or months.

It is precisely the ability to reduce this distance between industry, experimentation and operational unit one of the most important lessons that emerged from the conflict.

Fedorov will remain in Ukraine

The new assignment does not mean relocation of the former minister to our country.

His staff clarified that Fedorov will continue to live and work in Ukraine and that the consulting for Italian Defense will be conducted pro bono.

The former minister also reiterated that his priority remains strengthening Ukrainian military capability and seeking international resources to support new projects in digitalization and defense tech.

The visit to Italy represents indeed only the first stage of an international mission that should include further meetings with industrial and technological partners, including counterparts in the United States.

Who is Mykhailo Fedorov

Fedorov, 35, was Ukrainian Defense Minister from January to July 2026 after holding key positions for years in the country's digital transformation.

His tenure leading Defense was brief and characterized by strong political and military tensions. His reforms on procurement management, mobilization and the use of new technologies encountered resistance within the Ukrainian apparatus, leading to his removal from office.

In recent days, Fedorov has also taken particularly critical public positions toward Kiev's leadership, arguing that Ukraine needs profound transformations to avoid progressively losing the war against Russia.

Collaboration with Italy thus opens a new chapter in his career.

And for Italian Defense it represents above all the opportunity to directly access the experience of one of the protagonists of the largest technological-military transformation observed in Europe in recent decades.