The departure of Ukraine’s 35-year-old defense chief, Mykhailo Fedorov, has raised questions about the future of critical wartime reforms. Fedorov left office on Wednesday as part of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s sweeping government reshuffle following the resignation of Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. Appointed on Jan. 14 with a clear mandate to modernize the Armed Forces, his exit after only six months marks the sudden end of one of Ukraine’s boldest experiments in wartime military management.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Volodymyr Fesenko, a political scientist and director of the Penta Center for Political Studies, warned that removing Fedorov from the defense portfolio could disrupt critical military reforms just as Ukraine is fighting to gain the upper hand against Russia, Reuters reported. Immediately after his departure, Fedorov published a 22-point farewell statement detailing the battlefield, procurement and technological initiatives completed during his brief tenure. The document presents an extensive record of asymmetric breakthroughs – from restricting Russian access to Starlink and rapidly expanding drone procurement to raising the reported interception rate for Russian drones to 91%. It also offers an unusually direct assessment of what remained unfinished. The precise reasons for Fedorov’s removal have not been publicly established. His departure came as part of the wider reshuffle, with lawmakers reporting that Zelensky intended to nominate Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko to take over the defense portfolio.