Former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrsky said in an interview with the BBC that uneven defense procurement funding under Mykhailo Fedorov led to shortages of weapons and military equipment.

According to Syrsky, the former defense minister prioritized certain types of drones while requests from the General Staff remained underfunded. He said this created a serious gap between what frontline units actually needed and what was being delivered.

Syrsky argued that Fedorov believed he understood the military’s needs better than the General Staff.

He said the shortage was particularly severe in ground robotic systems, which initially received no procurement funding at all. At the same time, some drone categories could be financed a year in advance, yet even those systems were supplied at only about half the required volume.

The former commander also pointed to shortages of ammunition for long-range artillery, vehicles, motorcycles and other military equipment.

In Syrsky’s view, funding should have been distributed more evenly and based on the actual needs of operational units. He believes Fedorov’s decision to set procurement priorities independently contributed to shortages across multiple categories.

Syrsky stressed, however, that there was no personal conflict between them. He said their disagreements were limited to the organization of military supply and procurement.