It’s been a while since my last newsletter, but the break was very much needed. I was going to write the new one about the all-European joint anti-ballisctic system, initiated by Ukraine. But I have to speak about the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov from the position of the Defense Minister.
It’s a truly baffling decision of the president of Ukraine that seems illogical and counterintuitive. Why would you sack the most technological minister in the midst of the technological race at the moment when his work started showing revolutionary results. The drones that Fedorov introduced and then scaled up have transformed the war and now are helping Ukraie to turn the tide in the war. 30 000 Russian soldiers are killed per month, which was the task set by Fedorov. Long-range strikes are dismantling Russia’s oil industry. The Russians queuing for gasoline is an embarrassing picture. Middle-strikes are cutting Russian logictics on the frontline. Crimea is being consistently isolated from Russia’s mainland and Russian logistics in the occupied south of Ukraine.
Further plans that Fedorov presented to us in May (read my previous newsletter) sounded revolutionary yet doable. It made me feel optimistic, inspired and proud. Now it appears Fedorov, a young successful digital guy was too inconvenient for Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky, a seasoned general yet very Soviet and conservative in his mindset. And it’s not a mindset that has a vision of a new Ukrainian army, the army where people want to serve, an army that is making headlines worldwide, an army that tests by fire some of the most advanced and necessary weapons, invents some new ones and tweaks the old ones to fit into the new reality of the battlefield.
It’s a shame that President Zelenskyy prefers stagnation and chaos to growth and modernization. Fedorov was many people’s hope (among the military and civilians) for the better. Many people took to the streets to support him and also support the level of innovation his team brought Ukraine to. As one protester wrote of his placard “I should be repairing the ground robotic system but I had to come to this protest”.
I still hope Fedorov will still influence decision making in the government. And I still hope what he introduced will keep building Ukraininan victory. Because now technology and the pace of implementation mean A LOT. It opened the window of opportunity for Ukraine to pressure Putin to end the war. You have to seize it.