Ouster of Ukraine's Fedorov disrupts drone and tech strategy

The dismissal of Ukrainian defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov on Thursday triggered rare wartime protests across the country. Parliament is now preparing to vote on Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko as his replacement. President Volodymyr Zelensky did not specify a reason for the move but told reporters he expected "greater unity" between the defence ministry and military leaders.

Fedorov’s ouster creates immediate uncertainty for Ukraine’s military technology sector. He was the driving force behind an "army of drones", ramping up purchases that supporters say turned battlefield momentum in Ukraine's favour this year. In February, he also worked with Starlink to block its unauthorised use by Russia, safeguarding a satellite network that commanders consider the lifeblood of their battlefield communications.

His digital ministry had also built a system where soldiers earned points by video-verified strikes on Russian forces, which could be redeemed for weapons like drones. This generated a vast pool of battlefield data that Fedorov portrayed as a "card" to play in negotiations with allies for more military support. His exit raises questions about whether Kyiv will maintain this data-driven leverage over Western defence aid and procurement.

Despite his tech successes, his push to overhaul the defence ministry and armed forces sparked tensions with armed forces chief Oleksandr Syrskyi. Economically and socially, Fedorov failed to fix Ukraine's troubled military conscription process. While he announced contract reforms for the roughly million-person armed forces and promised wage increases for infantry, soldiers complained the measures favoured new recruits over early-war volunteers who have few paths home aside from serious injury.

Before his six-month stint as defence minister, the 35-year-old served in all of Zelensky’s governments, having originally run the president's 2019 social media campaign. He previously served as digital transformation minister, where he launched the Diia app, billed as "the state in a smartphone", to digitise government services. It remains unclear if he will receive another government post.