Fedorov Blames Procurement Reform Backlash for Ukraine Sacking
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- Mykhailo Fedorov told Ukrainska Pravda his procurement reforms — launching tenders and restructuring defence ministry management — provoked powerful opposition that "started constantly exerting influence and spreading negativity" around Zelenskyy and across the media space.
- President Zelenskyy dismissed the 35-year-old Fedorov after six months, replacing him this month with Yevhenii Khmara, formerly head of the SBU security service who oversaw Ukraine's deep-strike operations inside Russia.
- Fedorov rejected Zelenskyy's stated reason of a personal feud with Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky, characterising it instead as "a difference in vision of how the war should be fought".
- Syrsky was himself fired last week and replaced by Mykhailo Drapatyi, 43, previously in charge of Ukraine's ground forces and joint forces command.
- Zelenskyy offered Fedorov a deputy prime minister role for digital innovations, but Fedorov said he would only return to the defence post; his dismissal sparked nearly two weeks of protests in Kyiv and other cities that have begun losing steam.
- The interview came as Russia fired 74 ballistic and cruise missiles and 284 drones at cities across Ukraine overnight, killing at least eight people including three children and striking targets in 10 provinces, including Kyiv, Kryvyi Rih and Lviv.
- Fedorov's sacking was part of a wider cabinet shake-up that also swapped Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko for Sergii Koretskyi, former head of state oil company Naftogaz.
Why it matters: Fedorov was the architect of Ukraine's wartime drone programme that drew Western respect and helped turn the war's technological tide; his claim that procurement-reform foes ousted him exposes a governance crisis inside Zelenskyy's wartime cabinet. The standoff plays out as Russia intensifies weekly city-shattering bombardments — 74 missiles and 284 drones in a single night — making the loss of a popular, war-tested technocrat both a political liability for Zelenskyy and a potential disruption to Ukraine's long-range strike campaign.
