Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said on Monday that he had offered his ousted Ukrainian counterpart Mykhailo Fedorov an advisor post in Italy, Reuters reported, quoted by bTA.
“I called him the day after his dismissal and said: “When do you want to come to Rome and work with me as an advisor?”, Crosetto said in an interview published today in the Italian daily “Repubblica”.
Asked about Fedorov's response, Crosetto said that the former Ukrainian minister was “touched“ and accepted the offer as “a demonstration of respect and friendship“.
Crosetto praised Fedorov as a driver of military innovation and said he was “one of those people who completely rewrite the rules of the game on the battlefield”.
Fedorov helped Ukraine first resist the Russian invasion and then regain the initiative by changing battlefield practices through new technologies, the Italian minister said.
The 35-year-old former Ukrainian minister, considered by his supporters to be a technology-oriented reformer who contributed to the development of Ukraine's drone capabilities and defense sector reforms, was dismissed from his post as defense minister earlier this month. The decision sparked rare wartime protests in Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky offered Fedorov other positions, but he said he would not accept anything other than his current position.