At a time when Ukraine appears to be making significant progress on the battlefield in its long-running war with Russia, mounting concerns suggest that its recent military success could be seriously undermined by the deepening political rift at the highest levels of the Ukrainian government.
The past few months have seen the Ukrainian military demonstrate increased effectiveness in its ability to strike targets deep within Russia—a strategy that has brought the war to the doorsteps of Russian civilians. This is due to recent advances the Ukrainian military has made in producing its own drones and missiles, with Mykhailo Fedorov, the country's former defence minister, getting much of the credit for this positive development.
The 35-year-old Fedorov, who previously served as Ukraine’s digital transformation minister, became the country’s youngest-ever defence minister in January as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sought to shore up his administration after a deeply damaging corruption scandal. This followed a raid on Kyiv’s parliament building in December last year by National Anti-Corruption Bureau officers investigating Ukrainian MPs accused of taking bribes in return for votes.
Zelensky’s decision to appoint Fedorov, a close political ally, to one of the key government departments was seen as an attempt to demonstrate his determination to bring fresh energy and dynamism to Ukraine’s military campaign against Russia. But while Fedorov’s appointment coincided with a significant improvement in Ukraine’s battlefield performance, his preference for using new technological equipment, such as drones and robots, to gain an advantage over the Russians created tensions with Ukraine’s then commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi.
The clash of personalities—with the Soviet-era Syrskyi opposing Fedorov’s attempts to modernise Ukraine’s armed forces and reform military procurement to address corruption—ultimately led Zelensky to dismiss Fedorov last month, prompting a national outcry.
