Russian military bloggers praised the dismissal of Ukraine’s Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who has been credited with cutting bureaucracy and boosting drone warfare against Russia, saying the shake-up would only benefit Moscow’s war effort.
Fedorov, 35, was dismissed Thursday after being on the job for just six months. His dismissal, which sparked rare wartime protests in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, comes as Ukraine has significantly intensified strikes on Russia’s oil infrastructure and military logistics, targeting key components of Moscow’s war effort.
Yet Ukrainian forces are still facing grinding Russian advances in the east amid a critical shortage of ground troops.
Pro-Kremlin military bloggers called Fedorov “far too smart and effective an enemy,” arguing that his removal would make it much easier for the Russian army to fight against Ukraine.
“Overall, it’s very good that [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky removed him from command of the army…Things should get easier now,” Russian military commentator Aleksei Zhivov said on social media.
“The fact that Zelensky removed such a prolific and dangerous — for Russia — figure from a leadership position is very good [for Moscow] especially considering that his resignation will most likely also lead to a purge of Fedorov’s people from the structure of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry,” said Informant, a pro-war Telegram channel with 94,000 subscribers.
Military blogger Svyatoslav Golikov said the “achievements of Fedorov’s team” at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry had had a “significant impact” on Russia’s Armed Forces.
The Telegram channel Voenny Osvedomitel (Military Informant) told its 612,000 subscribers that Fedorov was “responsible for expanding digitalization in the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the use of drones.”
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Fedorov, who was then Ukraine’s first digital transformation minister, called on SpaceX owner Elon Musk to switch on the Starlink satellite internet service over Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military now uses tens of thousands of Starlinks, with commanders describing it as the lifeblood of their battlefield communications. This year Fedorov also worked with Starlink to block its unauthorized use by Russia.
“It is more likely that his dismissal will prove to be favorable for Russia,” Voenny Osvedomitel said.
Political analyst Dmitry Tsybakov told the pro-war military Telegram channel Voenkor Kotenok, which has more than 316,000 subscribers, that “Fedorov is the only one among the civilian ministers of wartime who has managed to have a tangible impact on the sphere of actual armed combat.”
“Undoubtedly, Zelensky and his circle saw this as a repeat of the situation in 2022-2023, when the seizure of the initiative on the battlefield immediately gave rise to presidential ambitions for the then Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valery Zaluzhny,” he said.
“Now Zelensky is not repeating his previous mistakes and is removing a potential rival,” Tsybakov added.
Zelensky said on Thursday he was still considering his candidate to replace Fedorov, adding that outgoing Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko was only one of the candidates under discussion.
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, Fedorov said he had declined an offer from Zelensky to serve as an adviser and accused army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi of blocking ministry initiatives and failing to address problems directly.
“Instead of working out how to defeat Russia, he has figured out how to split the country,” he said, referring to criticism against Syrskyi for a rigid command style which some service members have said results in high troop losses.
The Kremlin said Thursday that it was monitoring the reshuffle, but added that it would make no difference unless Kyiv was ready for a “responsible decision” leading to a peace settlement.
“By and large, it does not matter who the defense minister is,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“What matters most to us is that there is someone in Kyiv who is willing to take responsibility and make the necessary decision — one that could lead to a peaceful settlement or bring the special military operation to an end,” he said, using the term the Kremlin invented to describe its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Reuters contributed reporting.
