31.07.2026, Moscow.
The reshuffling of Ukraine’s defense ministers is primarily connected to the choice of the country’s future war strategy, political scientist, philosopher, and leader of the Essence of Time movement Sergey Kurginyan said on July 24 on the Conversation with a Sage program on the Zvezda radio station.
According to him, Syrsky represents the traditional, Soviet-era military school focused on ground warfare, where the primary objective is capturing towns and cities. Fyodorov, by contrast, is advocating a new military doctrine in which drones, digital technologies, and deep strikes against enemy rear play the decisive role.
“My interlocutors from the military sphere rightly say that if you do not capture towns and villages, or if you keep giving them up, then no other line of effort can compensate for that. But Syrsky emphasizes exactly this. He is fiercely defending positions, counterattacking where possible, trying to keep the ground forces under fool control, and carrying out all of Zelensky’s orders so that the front does not collapse,” the political scientist noted.
The analyst stressed that behind Fyodorov “stands the British, fairly influential doctrine, according to which the main thing is not combat on the front line, but to strike the rear, hit its weak points, remain unpredictable, stir up discontent, and so on.”
While Syrsky and his generals continually speak about the problem of recruiting personnel into the army, Fyodorov argues that they “are handling young people and recruitment incorrectly and, in general, are far too old-fashioned.”
Based on this, Kurginyan emphasizes that the key issue becomes which generation of warfare the Kiev authorities and their backers will choose to prioritize, and which categories of weapons will receive the main financial support.
“But these are financial flows, and those flows do not stop at Ukraine’s borders. If you need more drones, then you need fewer artillery barrels. You cannot have everything at the same time because it is all the same money. There are financial problems there as well. They exist, and they will continue to exist. That means fewer shells, fewer artillery barrels. Meanwhile, Rheinmetall has already invested in factories for shells and gun barrels. Now it is already facing a shortfall because a certain Fyodorov believes the money should be spent on drones. Who do you think is going to be happy about that?” the political scientist reasoned.
In other words, a conflict is emerging within the Ukrainian military between a younger generation that is betting on technology-driven warfare, in which “the people fighting sit deep in the rear while unmanned systems actually conduct the attacks,” and the old guard, which adheres to the principles of conventional warfare.
There are also questions surrounding the production of robotic systems: whose systems will they be, who will oversee them – Karp [Palantir’s CEO – Rossa Primavera News Agency] or someone else. So who will receive the funding for that?
Although Fyodorov says that “he is completely selfless and he is not involved in any corruption scheme,” he nevertheless works in the interests of certain groups, both within Ukraine and abroad, Kurginyan added.
Thus, on one side there is Karp and his AI-powered drone systems, while on the other there are major defense companies such as Rheinmetall, which manufacture conventional weapons.
“It is one or the other. And if you keep relying more and more on these drones, then how are you going to repulse groun attacks? ‘What will happen on the ground?’ Syrskyi asks. ‘And if I do not push relentlessly to bring people into the army, then where will the army come from? And if there is no army, what will happen on the ground? We need divisions.’ Then the other side says, ‘We need drones.’ ‘No, divisions!’ ‘No, drones!’ This is a very major conflict within the system,” the leader of the Essence of Time movement explained.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
