Ukraine’s defence shake-up exposes rift in Zelensky’s inner circle

Ukraine's defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, was dismissed on Friday following a public rift with the country's military commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, per The Conversation. Fedorov had championed drone warfare and sweeping reforms to defence procurement—including competitive tendering that reportedly saved over one hundred million dollars by reducing the costs of artillery shells—but those initiatives collided with Syrskyi's more traditional military approach. The dismissal prompted high-profile resignations from key defence advisors, and Zelensky appointed Yevhenii Khmara, acting head of Ukraine's intelligence service, as the new acting defence minister. As The Conversation reports, this conflict reflects deeper strategic disagreement over how Ukraine should conduct its war effort at a moment when the country had finally begun to seize momentum against Russia.

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