Fedorov proposed that Zelensky replace Syrsky and Hnatov

Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said he had proposed to President Volodymyr Zelensky that Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky and Chief of the General Staff Andrii Hnatov be replaced, viewing this as a condition for victory over Russia.

This was reported by an RBC-Ukraine correspondent.

According to Fedorov, he put this proposal to Zelensky at the very start of his work at the defense ministry. He did not name any specific candidates, insisting that the choice should remain with the president.

“Who did I propose? I told the president that this choice should be made by him. It should be his decision, not mine. There is an analytics system, conclusions can be drawn, conversations can be had, and a commander-in-chief and chief of the general staff can be chosen,” the minister said.

Zelensky, according to Fedorov, immediately rejected the idea. The minister said he accepted the president’s decision and was prepared to build a working relationship with the existing command.

“In fact, when the president said he did not plan to replace Syrsky — that is his decision as Supreme Commander-in-Chief. And I fully agreed with that decision and said: then I will learn to work with him, because our client, after all, is the Ukrainian people, and not anyone else,” Fedorov said.

After that, however, according to the minister, his team encountered a blockade of all proposed initiatives. Over six months of work at the Ministry of Defense, it proved impossible to establish competency centers or change the organizational structure of the ministry.

“Because the General Staff does not sign off on this, because there is no need to bring in new people who are capable of generating ideas. We ‘hacked’ this with unconventional solutions, but overall it doesn’t work if we are talking about a serious system. Imagine — a country at war cannot transfer people to the Ministry of Defense because there is a blockade. I did not create ‘Skelya’ and allow what is happening, I did not launch the media campaign. This is a culture that needs to be eradicated, because we will not defeat the enemy this way,” Fedorov added.

RBC-Ukraine previously reported that Zelensky had offered Fedorov a new position. It also became known that the EU wants to receive an explanation from the Ukrainian president regarding the reasons for the dismissal of the defense minister.