Fedorov admitted that after the launch of the ‘Army of Drones’ he did not control the cost of UAVs and their suppliers
Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine for Innovation, Education, Science and Technology and Minister of Digital Transformation, has admitted that he has not monitored drone procurement since the launch of the Army of Drones project a year and a half ago.
According to an investigation by Hromadske, the state lost about UAH 600 million on the purchase of Autel EVO MAX drones. Fedorov said that he only discovered the inflated prices in September 2023, after which the Ministry of Digital Transformation introduced monitoring. Based on the results of this analysis, a request was sent to the NABU.
‘We started receiving messages from other suppliers back in August-September that we could buy drones cheaper. In September, I received invoices with inflated prices from the frontline. We then requested contracts and introduced market price controls. In November, I asked the NABU to strengthen the monitoring of contracts with Autel,’ said Fedorov.
The investigation revealed that the drones were purchased through Kryon-M, a company with a registered capital of UAH 765 that previously specialised in the sale of furniture, carpets and lighting. In 2023, the company began supplying drones to the State Service for Special Communications, although no transparent tender was held, and only companies invited by the State Service for Special Communications were involved in the process.
The journalists also found that since July 2023, Kryon-M has sold 3,900 drones to the state for a total value of about UAH 1.5 billion, with one drone costing almost UAH 500,000. For comparison, the Serhiy Prytula Foundation bought the same drones with a battery for 280,000 hryvnias in the summer and 212,000 in August.
