Syrsky Revealed The Reason For His Conflict With Fedorov For The First Time
- 13.10.2026, 13:40
The former commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that the former defense minister did not take the army's needs into account.
Former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi spoke about his disagreements with Mykhailo Fedorov, who headed the Ministry of Defense. According to the former commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, these disagreements arose in the context of the army’s needs, as presented by the General Staff. Former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexander Syrsky reported this in an interview with “BBC Ukraine”.
According to Syrsky, there was no conflict with Mikhail Fedorov as such.
“There were disagreements regarding the funding of the army’s needs and, accordingly, the procurement of the weapons and ammunition required by the armed forces,” the general noted.
According to him, waging war is a complex process, and the procurement plan is drawn up after calculating the needs for major types of weapons and analyzing all trends regarding what is effective and what is not.
He noted that the General Staff determines exactly what the army needs based on requests from the troops:
“So, the problem was that the defense minister himself was responsible for procuring certain types of weapons—primarily drones—and was giving preference to specific models of these drones, ignoring the army’s needs as presented by the General Staff.”
Thus, as the general explained, this resulted in a significant imbalance between procurement and needs, as well as between procurement and deliveries to the troops. In particular, this primarily concerned ground-based robotic platforms.
Syrsky emphasizes that the front must be supplied in a balanced manner.
“For example, drones are not procured for the entire year; instead, everything is procured simultaneously: what the troops need—the same UAVs, the same pickup trucks, the same motorcycles, ATVs, and buggies—that is, everything needed in war, as well as the same UAVs and corresponding strike drones,” the general added.
However, according to Syrsky, Fedorov allowed for an imbalance:
“In other words, he believed he knew our needs better, that our needs could be ignored, and he allocated funding, for example, for drones for the entire year. But the procurement of, for example, those same NRKs or other specified types was not carried out, and a shortage arose.”
In this regard, as Syrsky stated, the crux of the problem and the source of the conflict lay in the fact that the interests of the troops were not taken into account.