Dro-ligarch wars
Why Fedorov was sacked. Israel vs Dubai.
Just when things seemed to be going so well, Zelensky got rid of the man credited for all the success — defense minister Mikhailo Fedorov. Fedorov’s supporters claim his only sin was to ask where all the money was going.
But perhaps Fedorov’s success on the battleffield wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. His grand ‘strategy’ of killing more Russian troops each month actually had the opposite results, per official Ukrainian data. His campaign against Russian energy infrastructure hasn’t led to a Russian collapse, but it might well lead to a Ukrainian one. Ukrainian ports are no longer able to export anything. Fedorov’s reform of the military contract system was widely hated in the army. And finally, the frontline keeps moving against Ukraine’s favor.
However, Fedorov probably wasn’t removed just because his reforms weren’t as successful as promised. The whole story has little to do with military logic.
Politically, Zelensky seems to be acting rather strangely. First he got rid of Fedorov, then, seemingly under ‘street pressure’ to return Fedorov, he sacked Commander-in-Chief (CiC) of the army Oleksandr Syrsky and put the Fedorov-aligned Mikhailo Drapaty in charge. The political effects of this about-face are contradictory.
On the one hand, Zelensky has shown great weakness by apparently giving in to the demands of political opponents wielding cardboard placards, just as he did back in July 2025 when he tried to liquidate the independence of the anti-corruption organs.
On the other hand, Zelensky seems to be as decisive as ever not to give into the original demand of the protestors — to return Fedorov as defense minister. Making Drapaty CiC could hence just be a compromise to get the protestors to forget about the ministry of defense, which is where the real money for Zelensky’s ‘Family’ lies. Meanwhile, Zelensky has made sure to fortify the rest of the state apparatus with loyalists.
Beneath all the politics is a great deal of euros. According to the anti-Zelensky, liberal nationalist military journalist Yuri Butusov, Fedorov fell precisely because 40 billion euros of military aid loaned by the EU finally entered Ukraine in May. Fedorov-supporters paint him as a principled warrior against corruption, but in fact, he simply represents another fraction of drone oligarchs fighting over the spoils.
Droligarchs, if you will. Behind Fedorov is Dubai, and behind Zelensky are the Israelis.
