On July 15, 2026, President Zelensky dismissed his entire cabinet — and with it, defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov, six months into the job and, to many soldiers and civilians, the most effective minister Ukraine's military had ever had. Within a day there were protests in Kyiv. Two days later, we turned on the cameras.
In this emergency panel — filmed in Kyiv on July 17 — Rob Lee sits down with two men who serve: Dima Putiata, veteran sergeant of Ukraine's unmanned systems forces, and Ryan O'Leary, an American who has fought for Ukraine since 2022 and joins the podcast for the first time — and does not hold back.
In Part 1, they unpack the political thinking behind the dismissal: what Fedorov actually changed in six months, why the streets reacted, who the replacement is, and the deeper clash over how this war should be fought — Fedorov's strategy of making the war unsustainable for Russia versus Syrskyi's push to attack while the window is open.
Part 2 goes deeper: Fedorov's farewell list of the army's systemic problems — E-points, the half-built corps reform, busification, and the foreigners' revolving door — debated point by point.
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Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction (Sam Cook): The Week That Shook Kyiv
2:11 - The Panel Convene
3:30 - Dima: Why People Defend Fedorov — and Why Wartime Reform Is Brutal
7:29 - How the Replacement Unfolded: Klymenko First, Then the SBU Man
8:22 - Ryan: "Ukraine Shoots Itself in the Foot"
11:58 - Year Four, and Foreigners Still Can't Transfer
12:43 - Why Six-Month Ministers Can't Work — and Why Fedorov Was Different
15:32 - Replacing People Without Giving Them a Chance
18:10 - Where the Frontline Gains Actually Came From
19:38 - What Fedorov Really Changed: He Opened the MOD to the Public
21:47 - Trust in Institutions — "We're Below Zero Now"
23:38 - The Strategy Vacuum Since 2023
25:01 - "I Asked How We Win — and Got Silence"
27:37 - Kursk: A Brilliant Operation in Search of a Strategy
28:52 - Fedorov's Theory of Victory: Make the War Unsustainable for Russia
31:31 - The New Minister: Brilliant Operator, Zero Public Affairs 33:10 - What Background Does a Defense Minister Actually Need?
35:26 - Dima vs the 50,000-a-Month Metric: Kill More, or Lose Fewer?
38:24 - Strike at 100 Kilometers, Not at the Zero Line
40:12 - Attrition or Maneuver: Where Is Russia's Breaking Point?
41:17 - Crimea Isolated: No Fuel, No Power, No Fleet — but Does It End the War?
44:41 - Making Occupation Unlivable: The Governance-Collapse Theory
48:59 - After the Strikes, What? Fedorov vs Syrskyi on Going on the Attack
49:49 - The Kursk Bill: A Thousand Vehicles and Hollowed-Out Brigades
51:21 - Two Theories of Victory: Raise the Costs, or Break the Line
52:12 - The Counterattack Reflex — and the Lying It Created
53:20 - The Assault Regiments: The Skala Controversy
55:38 - Code 9.2 and the Kupiansk Model: 100 Infantry, Local Drone Superiority
56:36 - Ryan Sides With Syrskyi: The Window for Maneuver Is Open
58:56 - Behind the Drone Line, You Can Do Whatever You Want
59:09 - Area Denial: "Mine Every Tree Line, 15 to 20 Kilometers Deep"
1:00:56 - Bakhmut, Lost Villages, and the Politics of Holding Ground
1:03:23 - Drone Assaults: What Chosen Company Proved in 2023
1:05:46 - The Missed Breach at Huliaipole
1:11:11 - Skala's Problem: Public Affairs
1:15:12 - Ten-Thousand-Man Regiments: Who's Actually In Them?
1:18:01 - Mobilization, Prisoners, and Who Ends Up in Assault Units
1:21:03 - The 155th Brigade Scandal: "Just Dissolve It"
Produced by the Borderlands Foundation.
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