The Power Vertical Podcast by Brian Whitmore
Jul 17, 2026 · 1 hr 5 min · 7 segments
On The Power Vertical Podcast this week, host Brian Whitmore speaks with Michael Carpenter, a senior fellow for Transatlantic Affairs at the International Institute for Strategic Studies who served in…
Michael CarpenterGuest
Brian WhitmoreHost
Max BergmanGuest
Mike, I know you're following this as closely as I am, and I know you're as despondent as I am.
It seems Fedorov got fired for doing a good job and turning the tide in the war against Russia.
I think this is such an own goal by President Zelensky and the Ukrainian government to, right as the country is turning the tide, as you said, on the battlefield, to get rid of one of their most successful reformers in government in such a key position as the Ministry of Defense.
But I think the reasons behind it you've pointed to, I think there is a... discrepancy or clash between the strategy and tactics that Fedorov wanted to adopt within the armed forces and the strategy and tactics favored by, uh, General Sersky, who is the, uh, commander, uh, of the armed forces and who at 60 years old is sort of a product of a military tactics in an old school way, relying on mass and infantry and so on and so forth.
Sirsky has developed a reputation for sacrificing a lot of Ukrainian troops unnecessarily when he might have used other tactics to pull back and to rely more on technology.
That was the direction that Fedorov was going to rely, especially on uncrewed systems, drones above all, to supplant the use of infantry on the front lines.
And Fedorov was also, you know, very deeply invested in reforming the procurement system.
in making it more transparent and trying to reduce the scope of corruption.
And this is where Ukrainian reformers have always found or they've always run up against entrenched interests within the system.
And, you know, shame on, you know, I have nothing but respect for President Zelensky for his wartime leadership.
But this is an area where this is now at least the third time where he has chosen poorly against reformers in favor of old guard entrenched interests.
The first time was when he sacked the Honcharuk government, which had as its defense minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk.
They lasted about a half a year and then they were dismissed inexplicably because they were doing a great job.
Then he tried to get rid of the autonomy of the anti-corruption institutions.
There's many others that are less prominent, but three prominent examples where reformers were really trying to change the system.
Mike, I know you're following this as closely as I am, and I know you're as despondent as I am.
It seems Fedorov got fired for doing a good job and turning the tide in the war against Russia.
I think this is such an own goal by President Zelensky and the Ukrainian government to, right as the country is turning the tide, as you said, on the battlefield, to get rid of one of their most successful reformers in government in such a key position as the Ministry of Defense.
But I think the reasons behind it you've pointed to, I think there is a... discrepancy or clash between the strategy and tactics that Fedorov wanted to adopt within the armed forces and the strategy and tactics favored by, uh, General Sersky, who is the, uh, commander, uh, of the armed forces and who at 60 years old is sort of a product of a military tactics in an old school way, relying on mass and infantry and so on and so forth.
Sirsky has developed a reputation for sacrificing a lot of Ukrainian troops unnecessarily when he might have used other tactics to pull back and to rely more on technology.
That was the direction that Fedorov was going to rely, especially on uncrewed systems, drones above all, to supplant the use of infantry on the front lines.
And Fedorov was also, you know, very deeply invested in reforming the procurement system.
in making it more transparent and trying to reduce the scope of corruption.
And this is where Ukrainian reformers have always found or they've always run up against entrenched interests within the system.
And, you know, shame on, you know, I have nothing but respect for President Zelensky for his wartime leadership.
But this is an area where this is now at least the third time where he has chosen poorly against reformers in favor of old guard entrenched interests.
The first time was when he sacked the Honcharuk government, which had as its defense minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk.
They lasted about a half a year and then they were dismissed inexplicably because they were doing a great job.
Then he tried to get rid of the autonomy of the anti-corruption institutions.
There's many others that are less prominent, but three prominent examples where reformers were really trying to change the system.
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