Ousted Fedorov: Ukraine Is 'Gradually Losing' War
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- Mykhailo Fedorov, ousted after just six months as defense minister, told Reuters Ukraine is 'gradually, slowly losing' the war and faces a 'turning point' with a window of several months to change course.
- Russia is hammering Ukrainian factories and warehouses with dozens of ballistic missiles monthly that Ukraine mostly cannot intercept due to dwindling supplies, while Ukraine's retaliatory drone strikes have caused nationwide fuel shortages inside Russia.
- President Zelenskiy said Fedorov's decision to front-load 2026 defense spending left a $27 billion hole in the ministry's budget; Fedorov said he had no idea where the figure came from and claimed year-end plans had identified the funding.
- Fedorov became the first major Ukrainian political figure to publicly call for wartime elections; Zelenskiy condemned the move, arguing it could destroy Ukraine, which has been under martial law since Russia's February 2022 invasion.
- Fedorov said existing technologies — AI-guided autonomous drones, cheap interceptor missiles, and a domestic ballistic missile program — could 'completely stop the Russians' if Ukraine adopted a unified strategy instead of operating at what he called '5% effectiveness.'
- A late-July poll found 82% of Ukrainians still believed Ukraine would win the war, though most expected fighting to continue into 2027 or later.
Why it matters: Fedorov's public break from Kyiv's official line — paired with his unprecedented wartime election call that Zelenskiy said would 'destroy Ukraine' — exposes deep governance fractures as Russia's missile campaign outpaces Ukraine's interceptor supplies. The disputed $27 billion defense budget gap, which donor-dependent Ukraine has no plan to fill, magnifies the urgency of the reforms Fedorov says aren't happening.
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