The problem of 200,000 deserters and 2 million draft dodgers needs to be urgently resolved, Mikhail Fedorov has told lawmakers

Ukraine's armed forces are struggling with major manpower and funding shortages, the country's new defense minister has said.

Mikhail Fedorov, who was appointed on Wednesday, told parliament at his confirmation hearing that the ministry faces a budget gap of 300 billion hryvnia ($7 billion), with around 2 million men placed on a wanted list for draft dodging and around 200,000 troops deserting.

"I don't want to be a populist, I want to be a realist," Fedorov said while presenting the statistics. "We have to do our homework and deal with the problems that we have to move forward."

Ukraine's mobilization drive has become a major source of social tension, with widespread complaints of corruption and claims that it falls hardest on poorer citizens. Kirill Budanov, the former military intelligence chief appointed this month as Vladimir Zelensky's chief of staff, said the government undermined the system through its own mistakes.

Fedorov provided online marketing services to Zelensky's comedy studio before helping him launch a surprise political career. He is best known for serving as minister of digital transformation since 2019.

Zelensky nominated Fedorov to lead the Defense Ministry after a major corruption scandal forced the resignation of two ministers.

The crisis was triggered when Western-backed investigators charged businessman Timur Mindich, an associate of Zelensky, with running a multi-million-dollar kickback scheme at a state-owned nuclear energy company. Budanov's predecessor as chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, resigned amid speculation he masterminded the alleged ring.

The Defense Ministry has previously faced graft issues, including overpriced supply contracts under Aleksey Reznik, who resigned in 2023. His successor, Rustem Umerov, was named as an official Mindich allegedly tried to influence. Umerov was replaced last July by former Prime Minister Denis Shmigal, who has now been picked to lead the Energy Ministry.