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LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has now fired the country's top military commander. Just a few days ago, Zelenskyy fired the country's defense minister. Together, it's one of the most significant military shakeups in the past four years of Ukraine's war with Russia. To break down what this all means, we're joined by NPR's Greg Myre in Kyiv. Hey, Greg.
GREG MYRE, BYLINE: Hi, Leila.
FADEL: So in less than a week, President Zelenskyy fired the two top figures leading Ukraine's war against Russia. Why now?
MYRE: Yeah. Relations between these two men - the young, popular civilian defense minister and the hard-nosed old-school head of the army - became so strained they apparently stopped speaking to one another. They represent different generations and very different ideas on how to wage war. The general favored traditional combat operations with an emphasis on ground troops, while the defense minister pushed cutting-edge drone warfare. Zelenskyy clearly felt he couldn't let this go on. So now he's fired both of them in a very messy public dispute, and it's still not clear how this will all play out.
FADEL: OK. You described two very different types of leaders. Tell us more about each one specifically. Let's start with the army chief.
MYRE: Yeah. Zelenskyy put out a late-night video Tuesday announcing the ouster of the army chief, General Olexander Syrskyi. Now, he's credited with some very important battlefield victories. The most significant was when Russia tried to storm the capital, Kyiv, at the very beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022. The Russians made it to within 10 miles or so of the city. And Syrskyi commanded the troops that halted this advance and forced the Russians to retreat.
But Syrskyi's critics here came to call him the Butcher, saying he sacrificed too many troops in order to hold vulnerable positions where Ukraine was heavily outmanned and outgunned. And Syrskyi is 60 years old. He started his military career four decades ago in the former Soviet Union, and that training appeared to shape his views as a commander.
FADEL: OK. And what about his rival, the defense minister?
MYRE: Yeah. He really couldn't be more different. He's Mykhailo Fedorov. He's 35 and looks even younger. And more than any other person, he represents Ukraine's revolution in the use of drones. You know, no military has ever used drones to the extent Ukraine has. It uses them to defend frontline areas, to strike deep inside Russia. It's using them quite extensively as ground robots and has naval drones to carry out attacks at sea.
And Fedorov has a tech background, not a military one. When Russia surged into Ukraine four years ago, he was the minister of digital technology. He took to Twitter and called on Elon Musk to give Ukraine access to Starlink. And Musk did so, and that's been hugely valuable with Ukraine's military communications. And when Fedorov became defense minister six months ago, he went back to Musk and asked him to cut off the Russian military's access to Starlink. And this arrangement ended, and it has hampered the Russians. All of this has made Fedorov hugely popular in Ukraine. When Zelenskyy fired him last week, this ignited public protest in support of Fedorov and against General Syrskyi.
FADEL: I mean, this is all happening during a full-scale war. Is this military shakeup over now, and could it disrupt Ukraine's war effort?
MYRE: Yeah. Quite possibly. It's too early to tell. Zelenskyy last night named a new general to lead the Army. He's a young guy, just 43 and a strong ally of Fedorov. And Ukraine has the battlefield momentum right now, but we'll have to see if Ukraine can keep the initiative with new faces leading the war.
FADEL: That's NPR's Greg Myre in Kyiv. Thank you, Greg.
MYRE: Sure thing, Leila.
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