‘I didn’t know we had a conflict. Sorry if I caused offense,’ Ukraine’s military chief Syrsky says
This is a retelling of a column by Oleksandr Syrsky, published on July 20, 2026, in the Ukrainian military outlet Militarnyi. The original Ukrainian text is available here.
Syrsky wrote the column a few days after the ouster of Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. His departure triggered protests across Ukraine. Fedorov himself said his dismissal stemmed from his conflict with Syrsky. Ukrainians then turned their criticism on Syrsky, and rumors began circulating that he might resign.
I’m at war. I have no interest in giving interviews or writing columns. But my silence has come to be read as agreement, so I decided to speak up. They say I have no strategy for victory — but announcing a strategy publicly would mean handing it to the enemy. They say I don’t want to fight with drones — but I’m the one who established the Unmanned Systems Forces as a separate branch of the military. They say I promote only loyalists — but the army’s most popular commanders rose from junior officers to their current posts under me. I’m waiting for army reform just like the rest of the country. And I don’t want money set aside for soldiers’ pay to be redirected to buying drones. I’m not at war with the Defense Ministry. I didn’t even know there was a conflict between Mykhailo Fedorov and me. I thought we had a normal working relationship. Mr. Fedorov, I apologize if I offended you. But let’s set aside personal matters and focus on the larger goal — victory. Ukraine will endure if everyone does their job where they belong.
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