Fedorov Blames Procurement Overhaul for His Dismissal
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- Fedorov told Ukrainska Pravda his push to overhaul military procurement — starting with a new tender system — was 'the main reason' behind his dismissal, saying the changes provoked resistance from officials inside and around the ministry who 'started constantly exerting influence.'
- Fedorov, 35, served only six months as defence minister before being dropped from President Zelenskiy's cabinet and replaced by Yevhenii Khmara, previously head of the SBU security service.
- Zelenskiy said Fedorov had been in conflict with top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi; Fedorov rejected that as a personal clash, calling it a 'conflict in terms of world view' over how to run the war.
- Syrskyi was also subsequently dismissed days after Fedorov's removal, in the same shake-up that saw Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko removed.
- Fedorov's supporters credited him with turning battlefield momentum in Ukraine's favour through strikes against Russian infrastructure, and his dismissal sparked days of protests demanding his reinstatement.
- Fedorov said Zelenskiy informed him of his firing no more than an hour before a parliamentary faction meeting of the ruling Servant of the People party.
Why it matters: The ouster of the minister who championed a tender-based procurement overhaul reveals deep institutional resistance inside Ukraine's Defence Ministry to transparency reforms. With Syrskyi and the prime minister also gone in the same shake-up, Zelenskiy has cleared out multiple top war leaders in days, yet the procurement bureaucracy that Fedorov tried to fix remains intact.
