Why Ukraine’s military shake-up is really a fight over how to win the war

Ukraine has shaken up its military leadership, dismissing both defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov and commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, Meduza reports. Syrskyi was replaced by Major General Mykhailo Drapatyi, who is loosely aligned with Fedorov's camp — an outcome welcomed by many analysts and by Ukrainians who had organized protests in support of Fedorov. As Meduza tells it, the feud is less about personalities than about how to win the war: Fedorov argued for an asymmetric fight built around drones of every kind, from those striking infantry in the tree lines to those hitting refineries deep inside Russia, while Syrskyi countered that drones alone cannot win, and must be folded into combined operations with infantry, artillery and engineers. Syrskyi also faced public anger over forced mobilization, since the territorial recruitment centers fell under his command. Underneath it all sits the question Kyiv still has not answered — where to commit finite resources to bring peace on terms it can accept.

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