Zelensky rejected push to fire Syrskyi as commander-in-chief, Fedorov reveals

Former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov admitted on July 16 that he pushed for Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi to be replaced, a move he said President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected.

Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv, Fedorov said he suggested "drastic personnel decisions," which involved replacing both Syrskyi and Chief of the General Staff Andrii Hnatov, who are often criticized by younger soldiers and commanders for their top-down, Soviet-era command culture.

Fedorov, a young defense minister who had tried to drastically reform the army and air defense sectors during his half-year tenure before he was ousted by Zelensky on July 15, stressed that "we have no other choice if we want to defeat the enemy asymmetrically, with minimal losses."

His press conference came the day after his dismissal as defense minister, a move which caused a seismic political shock in Ukraine.

Approximately 1,000-2,000 people gathered in Kyiv on the morning of July 16 to protest his dismissal, some of whom were soldiers and veterans who had hoped Fedorov would help resolve Ukraine's long-standing military issues, from mobilization to the severe lack of manpower.

Fedorov said during the press conference that he told Zelensky he would learn to work with Syrskyi despite their differing visions of the war, because "our client is the Ukrainian people."

Fedorov said the initiatives were then blocked and that he remained patient until, according to him, Syrskyi issued an ultimatum.

"And instead of thinking about how to win the war asymmetrically, he figured out how to divide the country," Fedorov said of Syrskyi during a press conference in Kyiv.

Fedorov insisted that he had never set an ultimatum and said, "Then we will win over Russia with such a commander-in-chief."

While noting Syrskyi's achievements saved Ukraine in the early stage of the full-scale war, from the defense of Kyiv to the 2022 counteroffensive in northeastern Kharkiv Oblast, Fedorov stressed that the war has now changed completely, with the drones dominating the front lines.

Asked about his evening meeting with Zelensky on July 15, Fedorov said that the president offered him an advisor role or to look for other ways to remain on the team. Fedorov said he declined the advisor role.

Fedorov, who has focused on advancing drones and technology to defend the country against a much bigger foe, said he believes Ukraine has the tools to stop Russia from continuing to wage its war.

"We shouldn't be like the Russians, we should change our approaches, and we should tell the truth," Fedorov said at the press conference.

Fedorov-Syrskyi conflict

The strained relationship between Fedorov and Syrskyi stems from a difference in leadership styles and approaches to military culture.

Yuriy Hudymenko, a prominent veteran and head of the Public Anti-Corruption Council at the Defense Ministry, told the NV news outlet the two men approach problems from "fundamentally different perspectives" in a June 17 interview.

"This is a conflict between a young technocrat and a general from a largely post-Soviet military school," Hudymenko said. Fedorov was a key proponent of the "mission command" style of military leadership, a Western method of command and control that empowers subordinates, ensures that all levels of military leadership understand the commander's overall intent, and gives them a high degree of tactical flexibility in carrying out assigned orders.

Syrskyi, who graduated from the Moscow Higher Military Command School in 1986, favors the heavily centralized style of command and control used by the Soviet Union and many post-Soviet militaries, and has been frequently criticized for micromanagement and for favoring unsophisticated, brute-force assaults that result in heavy casualties.

The differences in culture also extend to the way they approach information management. The technocratic Fedorov believed in a data-heavy approach to military management, prioritizing the accumulation of large amounts of accurate data.

In contrast, Syrskyi was accused by prominent Ukrainian military figures of promoting a "culture of lying" within the Ukrainian military, in which subordinates were afraid to pass accurate information up the chain of command due to the fear of being punished.

"I think that Russians stopped their lying culture in the army, maybe in the beginning of 2024," Bohdan Krotevych, former chief of staff of the Azov Brigade, said in an interview in November 2025.

"They stopped lying, and we started lying."