Former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov obtained a deferment from military service through the international charitable organization "East Europe Foundation." This was reported by Member of Parliament Oleksii Honcharenko, publishing the official response from the Kyiv City Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center.
According to the information, the deferment was obtained immediately after he was dismissed from his position as minister. The entire procedure took four days.
"I received a response from the Kyiv City Territorial Recruitment and Social Support Center. Fedorov obtained the deferment on July 18, 2026. The deferment is valid until January 29, 2027. He obtained it four days after the Svyrydenko government was dismissed," Honcharenko wrote.
The MP said that he had already invited the foundation's leadership to a meeting of the parliamentary Temporary Special Commission on investigating possible violations of Ukrainian legislation in the areas of defense and anti-corruption legislation, in order to determine whether Fedorov's deferment was fictitious.
"Some of the most important principles in building a democratic and law-based society are honesty and fairness. That is why the East Europe Foundation was invited to the TSC meeting. It is important to understand that Mr. Fedorov's deferment is not fictitious: he performs his work, shows up at work, and has all the evidence confirming that he genuinely needs the deferment. After all, on Mr. Mykhailo's social media accounts, we currently see that he writes nothing about East Europe, but speaks about the plans of his 'team' and communicates with the press through his 'press office.' I wonder whether every foundation employee has their own press office? We will find out on Friday!" the MP wrote.
Earlier, Honcharenko said that Fedorov had been summoned to a meeting of the parliamentary TSC, but had ignored it.
As reported, several days ago Italian media published materials with headlines stating that Italy was "recruiting" former Ukrainian minister Mykhailo Fedorov. Meanwhile, the British publication Financial Times wrote that his role in Italy could pose a "threat of leakage of knowledge about Ukraine's advanced military technologies."
It is known that the East Europe Foundation is part of George Soros's orbit and has repeatedly attracted media attention due to the annual disbursement of billions of hryvnias.