UAWire - Former Ukrainian defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov reveals struggles to secure Patriot missiles and Western support

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Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has opened up about the challenges he faced assembling Patriot missiles during his first meeting at the “Ramstein” contact group. He described how European stockpiles of air defense systems were desperately low, sharing that it was a struggle to collect just 20 missiles-until Germany added another five to the mix. Fedorov, now weeks after his resignation, spoke about the difficulties of securing missile defense support from Western partners-and offered his candid thoughts on the political pressures Kyiv faces to defend itself while those same partners hold back on aid.

Fedorov’s comments came during a wide-ranging interview with activist and volunteer Serhiy Sternenko, published on YouTube on the evening of July 6. Beyond the issues of missile defense and the war itself, Fedorov highlighted the limited authority of Ukraine’s acting defense minister, who cannot fully participate in government decision-making. He also outlined a three-pronged war strategy and discussed the mounting pressure from anonymous Telegram channels.

Asked about the shipments of Patriot missiles to Ukraine-an area where he said partner countries have applied pressure-Fedorov clarified that there is a program called PURL, under which the U.S. sells missile defense systems to Ukraine using European funds. Supplies are tight, but deliveries have come in at a steady, albeit limited, pace. The core problem, he said, is that Russia’s weekly and monthly ballistic strike rates are outpacing U.S. production capacity, which also has to satisfy domestic needs.

Reflecting on his first “Ramstein” meeting as defense minister, Fedorov recalled how he and then-NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte went table-to-table, appealing directly to each partner nation’s defense minister for just one or two missiles each-whatever they could spare. He said European reserves ranged from just 5 or 10 to, at best, 50 missiles per country. They struck a deal with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius to add five more, but only if they managed to collect a total of 20 from everyone else.

“It worked,” Fedorov recounted. “We also signed a contract with Germany for hundreds of PAC-2 missiles, but those will arrive next year as they are newly produced. We’re taking those on credit-this is the first contract of its kind.”

At the start of the interview, Fedorov addressed another challenge: Ukraine’s parliament had gone on break without appointing a permanent new defense minister. He pointed out that the acting minister, in accordance with Ukrainian law, has no voting rights at government meetings, effectively sidelining them in the decision-making process. The conversation also touched on his battles with weapon-industry lobbying within the Ministry of Defense and a wave of attacks from anonymous social media channels. Fedorov then outlined his three-part plan for the war, focused on “Air. Land. Economy.”

“The ideal outcome is ballistic missile against ballistic missile,” Fedorov said. “There are other operations, and they need to be conducted aggressively and symmetrically so that Russian forces understand: just moving a launcher into range is almost a guaranteed death sentence.”

Fedorov resigned as defense minister on July 16, citing disagreements with then-Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and General Staff. President Volodymyr Zelensky replaced Syrskyi with Mykhailo Drapatyi. Fedorov later revealed there were other deep internal issues within the Defense Ministry, where he had attempted to root out entrenched arms lobbying.

Reports surfaced in July that Fedorov was being considered for new positions, both by President Zelensky and by Italy’s Ministry of Defense.

War in Ukraine, Fedorov

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