Mykhailo Fedorov Transformed Ukraine's Military Into A High-Tech Force. His President Just Fired Him.
The corrupt old guard wins a critical internal fight in Kyiv.
On Jan. 14, Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelensky tapped Mykhailo Fedorov, then 34 and the country’s minister of digital transformation, to head the ministry of defense.
Six months later on July 15, Zelensky fired Fedorov and appointed Yevhenii Khmara, the head of the state security agency, to replace Federov in an acting capacity.
The move dismayed many Ukrainians and allies. Thousands gathered in Kyiv to protest the decision. In six short months, Federov had reshaped Ukraine’s war effort, primarily by cracking down on corruption inside the defense ministry and expanding the Ukrainian drone force.
At the same time, Federov had correctly identified one of the main sources of dysfunction inside the armed forces: commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi.
The CIC has been rightly accused of cronyism. Syrskyi has funneled weapons and scarce manpower into the assault forces, a branch of the ground forces that he personally controls, and which is notorious for brutality and blunt tactics that tend to waste precious manpower.
Syrskyi has also encouraged the formation of “empty” new brigades that lack manpower or equipment but create new command billets that senior officers can dole out to loyal subordinates as a kind of reward for complicity.
At some point in the last few months, Federov pushed for Zelensky to fire Syrskyi. But Zelensky, apparently fearful of replacing a fiercely loyal CIC with a fiercely independent one, refused. “President Zelensky chose the comfort of the old, incompetent guard over change and a new vision,” wrote Tatarigami, the founder of the Frontelligence Insight analysis group. “Meanwhile, General Syrskyi remains untouchable.”
