Banik Mstyslav Valeriyovych

Ukrainian civil servant, fintech marketer, Lieutenant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Banik is the current Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine (appointed on March 25, 2026). Born in 1990 in Uzhhorod, he received education in finance and marketing, and in 2024 graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv with a degree in Public Administration. He worked for a long time in the private IT sector, and since 2019 joined the Ministry of Digital Transformation team under Mykhailo Fedorov, where as director of the directorate for over four years he was directly responsible for the development, scaling, and advancement of the "Diia" mobile application. In March 2024, he voluntarily mobilized to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, fought in the strike UAV unit CODE 9.2 (participated in the Kursk operation), later became head of digital products of the Ministry of Defense (supervised the launch of the "Army+" and "Reserve+" apps), and after transitioning to the deputy minister position led the strategic direction of reforming the defense procurement system. After the change of the department head in summer 2026, Banik retained his position in the team of the new Minister of Defense Yevhen Khmara.

Journalistic investigations regarding concealment of assets and violations of NACP financial control rules

Anti-corruption publications revealed that in his declaration for the reporting period, the official heading defense procurement completely concealed the income and assets of his common-law wife Alina Tornagi, manipulatively using the fact of official divorce registration in the last month of the year (December 2025). Additionally, investigators pointed to a sharp enrichment and discrepancy between the official income and the family’s lifestyle: at the height of the war, his vehicle fleet was replenished with elite SUVs Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited (purchased in 2025 for UAH 1.95 million), Land Rover Discovery Sport, Isuzu D-Max truck, as well as a premium electric Fiat 500 worth UAH 1.73 million, registered to the wife. Further resonance was caused by information that the couple lived rent-free for a long time in a large capital apartment of well-known energy businessman Oleksandr Zmikhnovskyi (owner of "Advance Solar"), while the ex-wife, officially unemployed, is registered in temporarily occupied Crimea (Gurzuf). Critics emphasize the unacceptability of such shadow hidden assets for a top manager of the defense ministry whose main declared task is absolute anti-corruption transparency.