Back
Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Member of Parliament's Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence Serhiy Rakhmanin stated that dismissing Mykhailo Fedorov from the post of Minister of Defense was a mistake, because six months is not enough time for a person to reveal themselves. At the same time, the deputy believes that Fedorov's return to the Ministry of Defense is impossible due to the president's personality traits and the position of his advisers, who consider yet another ministerial replacement a too great risk for a country at war.
Rakhmanin said this in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda. According to him, there were no justified grounds for dismissing Fedorov.
“Dismissing Fedorov was a mistake at least because six months is not enough time to prove oneself. There were no justified grounds for his dismissal. He is a large, systemic person, an enthusiast. But he had a chance to do more, and the president deprived him of that chance,” said Serhiy Rakhmanin.
At the same time, the deputy noted that, by Fedorov's own words, “there were mistakes that he does not like to talk about.” Rakhmanin emphasized that he does not share attempts to make this story black-and-white — excessively demonizing some and excessively idealizing others.
“What I dislike most in this story is the attempt to make the picture black-and-white. Excessive demonization of some and excessive idealization of others. Life is much more complex, and it is certainly not black-and-white, especially when it comes to politics,” noted Serhiy Rakhmanin.
Explaining the reasons for the minister's dismissal
Rakhmanin outlined several main reasons for his resignation. The first is that Fedorov became too much in the media space, and this hardly pleased the president, who, according to the deputy, is “an ambitious person with a special attitude toward other heroes.”
The second reason is the open clash between Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and the defense minister, which spread to the chief’s apparatus, the General Staff, and the Ministry of Defense. Rakhmanin believes this “could not fail to harm the Armed Forces, the national security sector, and the country’s defense capability.” The third reason named by both the president and the former minister was the non-fulfillment of the mobilization reform, the implementation of which was one of the conditions for Fedorov’s appointment.
Regarding the possible return of Fedorov to the government, the deputy stated that he considers it unlikely. He explained this by the president's unwillingness to admit mistakes and show weakness, as well as by the position of Zelensky's advisers, who believe that another change of the defense minister during the war would cause even more stress for the country than the already carried out appointment of acting defense minister Yevhen Khmara.
Fedorov was dismissed at the end of July
Earlier, Informator reported that Fedorov named the reason for his dismissal from the Ministry of Defense and spoke about the conflict with Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi that preceded his resignation as minister of defense. We also wrote that Fedorov promised not to go into opposition to Zelensky, but only until the end of the war, and spoke about the conditions of his possible return to the government.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Нардеп Рахманін назвав звільнення Федорова помилкою – але його повернення у Міноборони вважає неможливим". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Informator.
