Zelenskyy Details Rift With Fedorov    08/24 06:17

   

   KYIV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he 
believes actions taken by dismissed Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, 
including his involvement in mass protests and calls for an election, were 
misguided, as he publicly detailed their dispute for the first time.

   Zelenskyy also alluded to problematic decisions over defense spending and 
said that inaccurate information provided by the Defense Ministry contributed 
to an awkward encounter with U.S. President Donald Trump over the use of 
Starlink in Russia.

   Zelenskyy disclosed figures showing Ukraine's growing shortage of Patriot 
air-defense missiles needed to counter Russian ballistic attacks, with 
deliveries from Western allies declining in the past three years even as 
Russian missile strikes intensified.

   He highlighted battlefield gains, however, saying Ukrainian forces have 
almost completely recaptured the Dnipropetrovsk region, with only about 10 
square kilometers (around 4 square miles) remaining under Russian control.

   The Ukrainian president made the remarks during a two-hour off-the-record 
meeting with reporters on Saturday, with a transcript released publicly on 
Sunday.

   Zelenskyy's first public comments on Fedorov dismissal

   His comments ranged widely, covering the latest battlefield developments, 
efforts to counter Russian ballistic attacks, the state of peace negotiations, 
Ukraine's budgetary challenges and the political turmoil surrounding Fedorov's 
dismissal.

   "I really had and still have a very positive attitude toward Mykhailo. We 
have been through a lot together. But I believe that he himself goes, or is 
pushed, into the wrong things," he said.

   Fedorov, a popular minister credited with modernizing Ukraine's armed forces 
and accelerating the military's embrace of technology and drone warfare, was 
dismissed last month after reportedly falling out with the country's top 
military commander. His removal triggered mass protests that lasted for weeks, 
but ultimately failed to force a reversal of the decision. Fedorov later called 
for an election.

   Zelenskyy said that he had offered Fedorov four different options to 
continue working in the government. Fedorov, he said, rejected all of them.

   The Ukrainian leader told journalists that he believes holding an election 
during the war would be a huge risk with the potential to "split Ukraine apart."

   "I believe elections during a war like this would generally pose enormous 
risks. Holding elections right now would be a tsunami for the state that would 
split Ukraine apart," he said.

   Zelenskyy said he had previously faced pressure to hold an election during 
the war, but no partners had come up with a plan for how a poll could be held 
safely, legitimately and democratically.

   Inaccurate information led to uncomfortable White House encounter

   Zelenskyy appeared to link Fedorov to an awkward episode involving Starlink 
and Elon Musk. Zelenskyy said that earlier this year, the Defense Ministry had 
told him that SpaceX had agreed to allow Ukraine to use Starlink over Russian 
territory to carry out deep strike operations, subject to political approval.

   Acting on that, Zelenskyy said, he raised the issue directly with U.S. 
President Donald Trump. He told Trump that Musk had confirmed the proposed use. 
Zelenskyy said the two sides subsequently sought Musk's confirmation and 
discussed financing for the project.

   But at a later meeting, Zelenskyy said that Trump told him that Musk had 
rejected the proposal and accused him of having misled the U.S. president. Musk 
considered the move a dangerous escalation, according to Zelenskyy.

   "He said that I had supposedly deceived him, because Musk had denied Ukraine 
the use of Starlink on Russian territory. I went back to our Ministry of 
Defense and they said that maybe it was so," he said.

   Zelenskyy didn't explicitly accuse Fedorov of lying. He said that the 
situation was among the reasons behind "some of the steps."

   Zelenskyy also pushed back against protesters' vilification of former army 
chief, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, who he dismissed, and current Defense Minister 
Maj. Gen. Yevhen Khmara, saying they had gone too far.

   "Maybe someone doesn't like Syrskyi for one reason or another. But the 
slogans 'Syrskyi is the devil, Khmara is the devil,'" he said. "Listen, this is 
too much. Do you understand? In principle, you can't treat the military like 
this and tolerate it, especially when it was the military that made it possible 
for any peaceful protests to take place in the Ukrainian capital at all."

   Pressure on defense budget but military successes

   Zelenskyy also described severe financial pressure on Ukraine's defense 
effort. He said that the Defense Ministry faced a $27 billion budget shortfall 
after spending decisions earlier in the year brought forward funds originally 
intended for the second half of this year.

   Touching on a corruption inquiry that led Zelenskyy to fire one of his most 
senior officials this week, he said that anti-corruption investigators don't 
believe that the president was involved. The investigators had named a deputy 
head of the presidential office among the suspects in a money-laundering case.

   "The heads of anti-corruption agencies have zero questions for me. They 
understand perfectly well that I am not involved in anything like that. And 
this is important to me," he said.

   On the battlefield, Zelenskyy was optimistic. In addition to Ukraine almost 
completely regaining control of the Dnipropetrovsk region, he said that another 
operation was underway elsewhere and that its results were expected by the end 
of August.

   He also predicted that by the end of the year, Ukraine could reach parity 
between the territory occupied by Russia since the beginning of the year and 
the territory retaken by Ukrainian forces. Zelenskyy said that Russia had 
occupied about 990 square kilometers (380 square miles) since the start of the 
year, while Ukraine had restored control over roughly 820 square kilometers 
(315 square miles).

   The president said that Russia's principal objective remained the 
Konstantynivka-Sloviansk-Kramatorsk axis, and that Moscow was still demanding 
that Ukraine withdraw from the Donbas region as a condition for a settlement.

   Still struggling for access to Patriot missiles

   Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was receiving substantially fewer Patriot 
interceptor missiles even as Russian ballistic attacks are increasing.

   He said that Ukraine received 675 Patriot missiles in 2023, compared with 
364 in 2025 and an expected 264 this year. Zelenskyy said that he wanted to 
secure 300 additional Patriot missiles for the coming winter, while Ukraine's 
air force had requested 360.

   The shortfall is particularly serious, because the United States and 
European partners are struggling to expand production. Zelenskyy said that he 
hoped Ukraine could obtain even 5% or 10% of U.S. reserves and was able to pay 
for them.

   Zelenskyy said that Russia could eventually produce up to 1,300 ballistic 
missiles a year, compared with an estimated current capacity of 600.

   He said that Ukraine was also preparing alternatives to Starlink, including 
a European communications project, as Russia and China work on their own 
competing system.

   Other developments

   -- Debris from a Ukrainian drone hit two industrial facilities including a 
warehouse belonging to online retailer Ozon, local officials in Russia's 
Orenburg region said Sunday.

   As well as shifting the war onto Russian soil through long-range drone 
strikes on oil facilities that have caused fuel shortages across Russia, 
Ukraine has unsettled the Russian public by striking warehouses of online 
retailers, including Russia's biggest one, Wildberries, and competitors such as 
Ozon.

   -- One person was killed and six wounded in Ukrainian drone attacks on 
Russia's Belgorod border region, local authorities said Sunday. A woman also 
died in a drone attack in the Tula region.

   -- Two women were killed and five other people were wounded when a Russian 
drone hit an electric train in Ukraine's Kharkiv region, the Ukrainian national 
police said Sunday.

   -- Leaders from Nordic and Baltic nations arrived in Kyiv on Sunday, the eve 
of Ukraine's Independence Day, in a show of solidarity from some of Ukraine's 
closest partners before a larger " coalition of the willing " meeting.

   Leaders from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Norway 
attended a flag-raising ceremony, as Ukraine marked Ukraine's National Flag Day.

   "We feel we are not alone. Our allies are with us," Ukrainian Foreign 
Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X on Sunday, noting that the leaders would hold 
bilateral and multilateral talks with Zelenskyy.