On 26 February 2026, the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission held a Defence Talks event titled “Defence Procurement Under Oversight: One Year of the Public Anti-Corruption Council of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and Priorities Ahead.”
The first panel of the event was dedicated to the current priorities of the Ministry of Defence, in particular in the field of defence procurement and anti-corruption. It also addressed the work of the Defence Procurement Agency in 2026.
The priority of the renewed team led by Mykhailo Fedorov is to rebuild the Ministry of Defence by directing all of the institution’s functions toward addressing frontline needs. This was emphasized by Yurii Myronenko, Deputy Minister of Defence. According to him, every hryvnia spent by the Ministry must deliver maximum impact. For this, cooperation with the anti-corruption infrastructure, including the PACC of MoD, is important. Such interaction will allow existing problems to be resolved quickly and risks to be mitigated.
He expressed hope that the transformation process of the Ministry of Defence would be completed within the next two months: “We have functionally reassigned departments and directorates according to a new logic. In the near future, once we complete the functional review, we will adopt the next decision — we will bring the functions into a form that will allow us to achieve military objectives, constantly generate smart solutions and ideas, and stay ten steps ahead of the enemy.”
Serhii Stepanian, Director of the Department for Prevention and Detection of Corruption at the Ministry of Defence, spoke about the Department’s plans for 2026. First and foremost, this includes certification in accordance with international ISO standards. Among other steps, he mentioned strengthening digital capabilities for monitoring procurement processes. “That is, so that we purchase not simply all UAVs that exist in the world, but precisely those that provide the highest coefficient of effectiveness in use — so that the Armed Forces procure exactly what they truly need,” he explained.
Stepanian also reported that preparations for the elections of the next, third convocation of the PACC of MoD will begin in summer 2026. The elections themselves are scheduled for early 2027.
Dmytro Bihunets, Director of Risk Management and Compliance at the DPA, explained how the merger of the Ministry of Defence’s two procurement agencies — the State Logistics Operator and the Defence Procurement Agency — took place. He stressed that, amid the reorganization process, the team managed to ensure uninterrupted supply to the Defence Forces. “As of today, the Agency operates steadily, systematically, and without disruption,” Bihunets emphasized.
Currently, the priorities of the renewed Agency include digitalization, in particular scaling up the DOT-Chain system; creating a centralized procurement organization; introducing non-price criteria in procurement; advocating for the needs of the military; building integrity and professionalism; and verifying data management.
Stanislav Haider, Chair of the DPA Supervisory Board, described the quality of the merger process between the DPA and the State Logistics Operator as satisfactory. At the same time, he emphasized that in 2025 the Supervisory Board not only exercised strategic oversight over the Agency but also made operational decisions. Addressing international partners and donors, Haider described support for the defence sector as rather restrained. Meanwhile, the Supervisory Board needs to engage experts, including the PACC of MoD, on issues such as analysis of non-lethal procurement and corporatization. “If we ignore this, we will spend more time developing a direction that currently amounts to UAH 600 billion and is absolutely identical to how our military are equipped at the frontline,” he said.
Ulyana Chuchkevych, Head of the Third Division of Detectives of the First Main Division of Detectives at the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, spoke about cooperation between NABU and the PACC of MoD in investigating corruption cases in the defence sector. “We are grateful to the PACC of MoD for the exchange of information and experience — as they receive important data and see processes inside the Ministry. We also thank them for their expertise. This experience of cooperation is already being implemented, and we hope to develop it further in 2026,” she said.
“Right now, we see from the Ministry of Defence a desire to involve us in more processes, in more responsibility. And I want to publicly assure everyone that we are ready for cooperation, we are ready for advocacy, we are ready to take on responsibility,” summarized the first panel Yurii Hudymenko, Chair of the PACC of MoD.
One Year of the PACC of MoD: Results and Plans
During the second panel, representatives of the PACC of MoD presented the results of a year of work. Yurii Hudymenko outlined the key cases of the Council’s second convocation, as well as plans for 2026.
“Since the activities of the Public Anti-Corruption Council cost the Ukrainian budget exactly zero hryvnias, it is enough to identify violations and prevent at least one hryvnia from being stolen. And one can already say that we have paid off, that we have brought benefit to the state. Despite such a low ‘threshold’ of success, last year we developed and brought to completion cases involving hundreds of millions of hryvnias. This year we are reaching billions. And we hope that one day, for us, for the anti-corruption council, there will simply be no work left at the Ministry of Defence,” Hudymenko said.
In addition to corrupt abuses, the PACC of MoD also analyzes problems of inefficient use of budget funds. Maksym Kostetskyi, a member of the PACC of MoD, explained how this works using the example of the analysis of court proceedings related to social payments for families of servicemembers. In most cases, during consideration of such cases, first-instance courts side with citizens. However, due to regulatory restrictions, the Ministry of Defence systematically appeals these court decisions. The cost of court fees paid in these cases alone amounts to about half a million hryvnias.
Currently, the PACC of MoD is communicating with the MoD to resolve this issue. “We want to act as a partner of the Ministry of Defence in this process. We want to strengthen its institutional capacity. And this, once again, shows the strength of civil society in Ukraine, which does not simply criticize indiscriminately. We propose solutions, we give them to the state, and we help implement them,” Kostetskyi noted.
Oleh Chernov, a member of the PACC of MoD, spoke about work with citizens’ appeals. In its first year, the Council received 43 appeals by email and 187 calls to the hotline. “Some of the cases we mentioned began precisely because we received appeals. This concerned the story about low-quality anti-personnel mines, the story with samples for the procurement of anti-thermal imaging ponchos, which we are currently working on,” Chernov said.
Citizens can contact the PACC of MoD at [email protected] or by phone at 093 333 80 08.
Olena Tregub, member of the PACC of MoD and Executive Director of NAKO, spoke about strengthening cooperation with international partners, in particular advocacy visits to the EU, the United States, and Canada. She emphasized the importance of synergy between various stakeholders in the security and defence sector: “There has long been a trend that if civil society and international partners work together on something and there are reformers in government who are ready to do it, then a very good reform is achieved, because several different resources are combined,” she stressed.
The task of the second term of the Anti-Corruption Council is to prevent corruption risks. This was emphasized by Oresta Brit, member of the PACC of MoD: “We are highly motivated. Among us are veterans, activists, volunteers who have been directly involved in the liberation struggle since the end of 2013.”
The PACC of MoD is an independent advisory body that analyzes corruption risks within the Ministry of Defence and provides recommendations to address them. It consists of 15 members — representatives of NGOs, volunteers, journalists, analysts, and experts — who serve on a voluntary basis and are elected every two years through a nationwide online vote.
Defence Talks is a discussion series organized by the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission (NAKO), bringing together Ukrainian government officials, senior representatives, civil society actors, diplomats, and media to discuss key trends and challenges in the security and defence sector. NAKO provides institutional, legal, analytical, and communications support to the Public Anti-Corruption Council of the Ministry of Defence.