July 29 (Reuters) – Former Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, in an interview published on Wednesday, said his efforts to overhaul the military’s procurement system were the main reason behind his dismissal this month in a military and political shake-up.
Fedorov, a technical expert seen by many as an agent for change in the nearly 4-1/2-year-old war against Russia, told the media outlet Ukrainska Pravda that the proposed changes met resistance from officials inside and around the ministry.
“The reason is connected with procurement, tenders, to the fact that we began overhauling the processes in this area,” Fedorov, 35, told Ukrainska Pravda.
“This caused significant dissatisfaction among many people, who then started constantly exerting influence and spreading negativity, not just around the president but across the broader media space.”
Fedorov, who held office for six months, said his first undertaking in office was to introduce a tender system for procurement.
“Our task was to fix the root of the problem as quickly as possible,” he said.
“First, launch tenders. Second, restructure the management system in the Defence Ministry, and choose the people working there differently, based on the goals we came in with.”
He said he saw pressure “from all sides as part of the process. That meant you needed simply to rebuild the foundation and the issue will be resolved.”
Fedorov was dropped from President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s cabinet and replaced by Yevhenii Khmara, previously head of the SBU security service, in a shake-up that also saw Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko removed.
His supporters pointed to his role in turning battlefield momentum in Ukraine’s favour with strikes against Russian infrastructure. His dismissal sparked days of protests demanding his reinstatement.
Zelenskiy said Fedorov had been in conflict with top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, who was also subsequently dismissed.
Fedorov said Zelenskiy told him of his dismissal no more than an hour before a meeting of the president’s Servant of the People faction in parliament.
He also said there had been no personal conflict between him and Syrskyi.
“It was more of a conflict in terms of world view. We have a certain vision of the war that we came in with,” he said. “We, as the Defence Ministry, did not block any decisions of the General Staff or the Commander-in-Chief.”
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksandr Kozhukhar; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
