Ukraine Update: Political Chaos, Drone War Crimes & More (ft. Romeo Kokriataski)

Summary

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It Could Happen Here – "Ukraine Update: Political Chaos, Drone War Crimes & More (ft. Romeo Kokriatski)"

Date: July 28, 2026
Host: Robert Evans
Guest: Romeo Kokriatski

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Episode Overview

This episode provides a frontline update on Ukraine's war situation, focusing on recent political upheaval, the evolving nature of drone warfare, incessant civilian peril, the firing of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, the ensuing protests, and what this means for everyday Ukrainians. Romeo Kokriatski, managing editor of the New Voice of Ukraine and a resident journalist living under siege, shares personal experiences alongside analysis of government turmoil.

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Life Under Perpetual Attack

• Romeo describes the relentless threat faced by Ukrainians:
  • Civilians, even far from the front, are under constant threat of missile strikes and drone attacks.
  • The feeling is not something one ever truly "gets used to"; fear and dread are omnipresent.
  • Quote:

    "I have mortal dread pretty much all the time. Every night I am desperately checking every single monitoring channel I have access to and praying that the Russians aren't going to shoot us."
    — Romeo Kokriatski ([04:00])

• The psychological toll of war:
  • Worry for loved ones is a daily reality. Calling colleagues every morning after attacks to check they're alive “has been clear for five years, but you really have to wonder, how long can one's luck last” ([04:41]).
  • Even “numbness” to violence is illusory; one remains profoundly affected ([03:32]).

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The Reality of Modern War for Civilians

• The majority of war’s victims are not on the frontline but are civilians facing “shit falling on you from the fucking sky” ([06:05]).
• “In Kyiv... we don't even have it as bad as some,” Romeo notes ([06:25]).
• Drone attacks turning some frontline regions into “human safari” zones ([06:33]).

2. Sacking of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov: Political Upheaval

• Context: On July 15, 2026, President Zelensky fires Fedorov, a widely popular, reformist Defense Minister ([08:46]).
• Reasons for Fedorov's Popularity:
  • Known for digitizing the Ukrainian government (DIA app).
  • Streamlined direct procurement for frontline troops, especially for drones, earning him wide support.
  • Started to bypass traditional procurement bottlenecks, cutting through bureaucratic red tape ([11:03]).

    “He said we would actually get you drones … set up a simple direct system … instead of you having to go through 15 layers of bureaucracy.”
    — Romeo Kokriatski ([11:03])

• Where Conflict Began:
  • Fedorov’s reforms clashed with General Syrsky, a “conventional Soviet general” keen on traditional munitions and artillery.
  • The dispute highlighted generational and doctrinal divides—drones vs. shells, innovation vs. status quo ([10:24]).

3. Corruption and Institutional Conflict

• Ukrainian defense procurement remains rife with corruption:
  • Defense contracts are often fronts for lining generals’ pockets.
  • Fedorov’s attempt to redirect funds toward numerous small drone manufacturers upset entrenched interests ([19:06]).

  “If you want to buy something from a domestic supplier, the chances are that supplier is … connected to some general or some highly placed military official... That money is not going into people’s pockets, and those people get upset.”
  — Romeo Kokriatski ([19:07])

4. Zelensky and the Politics of Popularity

• Speculation exists that Zelensky frequently sidelines officials whose popularity rivals or eclipses his own (e.g., former General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, intelligence chief Budanov).
• Romeo is “cynical” but sees that the theory is not unfounded, citing repeated patterns ([23:26]).

  “It is not difficult for me … to look at a man and say, huh, you know what? He probably doesn't like being outshone on the stage.”
  — Romeo Kokriatski ([23:36])

5. The Drone Debate – Techno-Optimism vs. Reality

• Fedorov viewed drones and robotics as the only viable long-term solution to Ukraine’s manpower disadvantage.
  • But this view faces criticism from traditionalists who argue that “drone power” alone can’t win wars ([25:23]).
• Romeo contextualizes Fedorov’s views:

  “It is mathematically impossible [for Ukraine] to match Russia in manpower... The only possible thing we can do to even start to match Russia in manpower is heavily embrace robotics.”
  — Romeo Kokriatski ([26:08])

• Fedorov’s libertarian leanings, Silicon Valley connections (notably Palantir’s Alex Karp and Peter Thiel) add another dimension of controversy ([27:14]).

6. The Manpower Crisis and Social Contract

• Ukrainian state struggles to reform mobilization due to widespread mistrust after years of corruption and indifference.

  “The fundamental social contract between Ukrainians and the state is seen by the, the average Ukrainian to be broken because of the continuous and constant corruption scandals… It’s not that we don't want to die for Ukraine, but no one wants to die for the Ukrainian state.”
  — Romeo Kokriatski ([34:53])

7. The Role and Impact of Mass Protest

• Protests erupted nearly instantly nationwide following Fedorov’s dismissal—unique under martial law and war.
• The protests succeeded in forcing the removal of Syrsky, the top general, as well ([37:31]).
  • “The country’s top general cannot be this controversial. He cannot be the guy everyone is talking about derogatorily. In a nation at war… you need to have the trust of both the people and the troops.” ([37:44])
• Ukraine’s responsiveness to public protest is seen as radically more direct than other democracies.

  “I cannot think of a single other democratic country on the planet that is as responsive to the undifferentiated random cries of the masses than Ukraine.”
  — Romeo Kokriatski ([40:20])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Civilian Fear:

  “It's a little tiring to constantly live your life with the feeling that you may die at any goddamn moment. I'm not even in the military.”
  ([04:26])

• On Political Intrigue:

  “I became a journalist because I love politics. The envy, the pettiness, the egos, all the little, like, garbage bullshit that makes up the experience of human politics. That's what calls to me in my dark, little shriveled heart.”
  ([08:05])

• On Modern War:

  “…for all the movies are about the guys… on the front lines. The vast majority of everyone’s experience of war is shit falling on you from the fucking sky…”
  — Robert Evans ([06:05])

• On Protest Culture:

  “The scale of it, the speed of it, and the general societal agreement is really what gave these protests their steam.”
  ([39:02])

• On Effectiveness of Protest:

  “We have seen multiple times where protesters go out with a concrete call and the government heeds that call… It’s fundamentally democratic in a way that I have not seen any other country in the world replicate so far.”
  ([40:51])

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:17 – Romeo describes daily life under threat, civilian toll of invasion
• 08:46 – Deep dive into Fedorov’s sacking and background
• 11:03 – How Fedorov reformed procurement and the "drone revolution"
• 13:18 – General Syrsky’s military ethos and resistance to change
• 19:06 – Defense corruption, rationale for resistance to drone procurement
• 23:26 – Theorizing Zelensky’s motivation in sidelining popular figures
• 25:23 – Philosophical and practical arguments over "drone warfare" and its limits
• 34:53 – The state’s broken social contract and impossible mobilization
• 37:19 – How protests forced leadership changes and what that means
• 40:20 – Ukraine’s unique protest-driven policymaking responsiveness

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Closing & Further Resources

Romeo Kokriatski:

• Managing Editor: New Voice of Ukraine (https://english.nv.ua)
• Podcast: Ukraine Without Hype

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This episode immerses the listener in both the agony and agency shaping contemporary Ukraine: terror raining from the sky, deep-rooted institutional dysfunction, and yet, a society that compels its leaders to answer to the masses even amid war. The discussion is candid, at times darkly humorous, and essential listening for those wanting an inside-out portrait of Ukraine’s struggle—not just against invasion, but for a better future.

Transcript

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

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[Romeo Kokrytsky]

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[Cool Zone Media Announcer]

Cool zone media.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Welcome back to It Could Happen Here. I'm Robert Evans. This is a podcast about things falling apart. And that's happening in a lot of places right now. But not every place also has things regularly, unfortunately, falling from the sky. But that's life in Ukraine for a lot of people, including our guests today, every single day, because they are still under Invasion from the Russian Federation, which I guess we're still calling it the Federation. Romeo Kokrytsky, welcome back to the show. How are you doing? I mean, I know it's not great, so I don't know why I'm asking.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Yeah, thanks for having me back on. It's been a while. Yeah, yeah, like you mentioned, it's. It's not great, especially for me personally. My neighborhood's been targeted by ballistics twice in the past two weeks, one of which hit a improperly stored munitions dump and blew up half the neighborhood. So that's been, that's been fun to deal with.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

I mean, we have other stuff to talk about, but I do want to just kind of talk about what life has been like. Like in terms of deal with that. I mean, thank God you have not been hit, neither has your home. But like, on a day to day basis, how are y' all enduring? You know, so many years passed when this escalated.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Most recently, honestly, I had thought prior to half my neighborhood being blown up that I'd basically gotten numb to the bombing.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Yeah.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Turns out that's not true.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Yeah, that makes sense.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Turns out I was just completely lying to myself. Yeah, I have mortal dread pretty much all the time. Every night I am desperately checking every single monitoring channel I have access to and praying that the Russians aren't going to shoot us. And if they do shoot us, I then have to think, hey, should I wake my wife and son up? Should we go down to the shelter? Is there any point? We live in the 15th floor, so we'd have to walk. What if a missile hits while we're in the stairwell? Yeah, and it's a little tiring. It's a little tiring to constantly live your life with the feeling that you may die at any goddamn moment. I'm not even in the military.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Yeah.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

I am pretty much constantly afraid for my life and of course, the life of my family and friends. Every morning after a mass attack, I have to call or text every single journalist who works for me, make sure that they're still alive.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Yeah.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

And so far everything's been clear. Everything's been clear for five years. But you really have to wonder, how long can one's luck last?

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Yeah, it's like you were talking about the moment you start to feel like maybe I've hardened or maybe I've gotten past the point that this can affect me is the moment where something happens. I feel so awful. The constant state of panic, fear, arousal that everyone has to be in over there because they're Just shooting missiles into your home. Home every day is just. It's hideous.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Yeah. It's not great. I haven't left the country since the start of the full scale.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Yeah.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

And to be quite honest, I'm not sure how I would do once this threat is no longer above my head. It's hard to imagine going to sleep and not wondering whether I'm going to wake up in the next. Like the next morning. It sounds a little absurd, but then I think someone about 300 km away has made a decision to lob multi hundred kilogram warheads at the general area of where I live within 2-3 km. That is not a large radius.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

No, no, it really isn't. No. I mean, ballistic missiles, you know, often can go thousands. Like that's so easy to build something that you could just fire blindly into a city at this point.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

That's.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

That's why war looks like this for most of the people involved in it. Right. Like, for all the movies are about the guys, like kicking in doors and shit on the front lines. The vast majority of everyone's experience of war is shit falling on you from the fucking sky or exploding in traffic or something like that.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Right.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Like, that's the reality. I'm fucking sorry, man.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Yeah. And in Kyiv, honestly, we don't even have as bad.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Yeah.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Here. So they're just doing a human safari. They've been doing that.

[Cool Zone Media Announcer]

Yeah.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

For, I don't know, like six months now. The front line is right over basically the river and they. The Russians just send drones to hunt people in the streets just for fun, you know? Funsies for the lulz. So as bad as I have it here, sometimes I read the stories I'm publishing and I'm like, man, thank God I don't live in that place. Thank God I don't know anyone from that city.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Everything becomes so relative after a while. I mean, it's the only way to stay sane. Even though your situation is objectively unreasonable and impossible, you kind of naturally just look over to whoever's got it worse. I mean, which says something beautiful, I guess, if you'll let it. But, you know, I guess that's one

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

way of looking at it.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Fuck, man. I'm sorry. Yeah. I know I brought you on here today to talk about some of the political changes that have been pretty massive that have just hit the Ukrainian government as the result of the sacking of Mykhailo Fedorov. But that also feels like we should talk about that some. I just. I don't know. Talking to you reminds Me of how much I even let myself over here focus on war in terms of stuff like that.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Right.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

These, like, moves by governments and moves by forces, which by default means excising the majority of what's happening from your mind. Because in some. I mean, sometimes it's just too big to think about otherwise. Right. But, like, it's.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

No, that's exactly right.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Yeah.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Whenever there's any sort of domestic political intrigue, I am just overjoyed. I'm ecstatic.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

That's why something.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

I know a lot of people wanted to be war correspondents and, like, be there in the trenches. And I have a lot of friends. My buddy Dylan Burns, I saw a clip of him just getting shelled last week somewhere, I think on Zaporizhzhia front. Yeah, that. That wasn't what I wanted to do. I became a journalist because I love politics. The envy, the pettiness, the egos, all the little, like, garbage bullshit that makes up the. The experience of human politics. That's what calls to me in my dark, little shriveled heart. So whenever I have the chance to engage in just domestic political bullshit, I feel overjoyed. That is fantastic.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Well, good. Okay, well, let's. Let's talk about some domestic political bullshit because there's been a wild train of it in the last couple of days. I'm to let you go after starting this off, but, like, kind of what. What prompted this is on July 15th of this year, Vladimir Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, fired or dismissed Mikhailo Fedorov, who was the Minister of Defense of Ukraine. And Fedorov, he'd been the president's social media marketer initially. Right. Like that. Like back during. He was. When he was campaigning, way before his involvement in the military, if I'm remembering correctly.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Yeah, he was a. Not just social media. He was the young, like, IT guy. He was the IT guy. Did all the IT infrastruct from S and M, from social media to the actual physical infrastructure itself. That was all Fedorov. He was like the IT dude for the Zelenskyy administration.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Yeah. And he's only had the position for about six months. He was appointed in January, but it's been an incredibly popular. Six months. Right. He is widely popular in Ukraine. There were large protests following his dismissal. And he got a lot of credit for his use of drone warfare and particularly some of the promises he was making. And some people would say some of the promises that he fulfilled about drone warfare. Right. And one of the issues that he had is he kind of Clashed, as I understand it, with an older General Syrsky, who was much more of a conventional weapons guy. And I think, like the big fight that borderless came over, like a fight over munitions. Right. Fedorov was canceling an order of artillery shells or something like that. And it kind of embodied the greater conflict between them, it seems like.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Yeah, that's basically right. Fedorov, prior to taking the Ministry defense position, like I said, he was the IT guy, and he had the Minister of Digital Transformation, because we have a whole ministry set up to digitize our government. We've got the DIA app and a couple of good results from it. So he had a relatively high level of popularity compared to the typical Ukrainian official coming into the mod position. And he became popular, or I guess his popularity grew, not so much because he was doing drones. Like, the transformation to drones occurred pretty much from the start of the.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Right. Yes.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Every single unit has been ordering and begging and getting drones however they can since literally the full scale started. However, what Fedorov promised to do and what he did, which is what won him a lot of accolades with the common soldier, is he said we would actually get you drones. Instead of you having to go through 15 layers of bureaucracy and procurement to maybe sign up for a list where you might get delivered something in four months somewhere, we'll set up a simple direct system where you can request the equipment you want and you'll get it. Well, it's not quite as simple. He developed some gamification crap which you can get into later. I'm not. I'm not a fan.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

It is really interesting, but. Yeah, yeah, he's tried some really fascinating.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Yeah, he's.

[Therapy for Black Girls Host]

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[Romeo Kokrytsky]

He's tried a lot of things, and it has worked. Yeah, people have started getting drones. Like, I know guys in the front who had complained previously that they were unable to get equipment even though they're posted, they're deployed, they have a mission and commands just like, oh, we don't know where your drone is. That started to be resolved. However, in order to do this, you need money, right? To buy drones, you need money.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Right?

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

So the Ministry of Defense controls the actual monetary flows. They have to actually sign off on whatever the request from the General Staff or the military is to. To purchase this or that equipment system.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Right.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

The way it typically works, because the Ministry of Defense is a civilian institution and the military is obviously a military institution. Typically speaking, in wartime, civilians are intended to defer to military expertise. Right. So if the army goes, we need. I don't know a hundred thousand 155 millimeter shells. The Ministry of Defense is not really supposed to say, you know what? No, we think you need this instead. This is the, the kind of the. The crux of the conflict here, is that Fedorov seeing these requests from Syrsky, like you said, he's a very conventional guy, a very conventional Soviet general. He grew up in Moscow, went to the Moscow Red Army Academy. To be quite honest, he's pretty much a Soviet general through and through.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

My understanding is he has a reputation for accepting pretty gnarly casualties.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Fair or unfair, he's gotten that reputation. I'm not like an expert on his record.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Yeah, absolutely, yes, he has that reputation. And like you, I'm not a military guy.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Yeah.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

I'm not an army expert. I've never studied strategy or tactics aside from meme posting. So I, I have no idea how you know, true or not true. It is. Obviously, you can look at the loss records of the units that Sir Ski is set to personally favor, and you can see that they are higher. But are they hired because they are simply being used more often like, it's a war. There are going to be casualties. There is simply no way to remove that fact. Or are they higher because his commanders are incompetent in throwing away human meat? You know, you've got people that'll say one way, you've got people that say the other way. But regardless, Syrsky would continue to request these kind of conventional munitions. And according to Syrsky's version, at least, Fedorov would just completely ignore this and buy whatever he wanted. The ministry by. Typically, this was drones. There was a funny meme I saw of Syrsky complaining to Fedorov with a text reading, the buzzing of your stupid drones are hurting the infantry to advance. To give you a sense of how Ukrainians viewed this.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Oh, man, that's beautiful.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

I really love that meme.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Really? That's beautiful. That's going in a history book.

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Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Maybe I have adult adhd. I need to look this up. Where's my phone?

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[Romeo Kokrytsky]

From the Fedorov side, what they say the the conflict is, is which knowing how Ukraine works, I tend to believe them.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Right.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Is that in federal attempts to move these cash flows from buying conventional munitions to buying drones, he started stepping on a lot of toes in the general staff.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Right.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Because this is Ukraine. Because this is defense procurement. If you want to buy something from a domestic supplier, the chances are that supplier is owned somehow, via shell company, connected to some general or some highly placed military officials. That's just the nature of the game, obviously. Let's say if the general staff requests, I don't know, a hundred thousand shells and they source, you know, half of it from a Ukrainian firm, there's a good chance that there's a lot of generals that are going to be building themselves in Uvilla after this. If, however, you don't put that order in and instead buy, you know, drones from the 500 or a thousand different garage manufacturers, which is how the drone industry works here, that money is not going into people's pockets, and those people get upset. Those people start complaining that you are not a team player, that they can't work with you, that you don't listen to them, they stop taking your calls, etc. Which is exactly what we saw in the conflict between Fedorov and Syrsky on the reporting of it. So that's, that's basically the gist of it, is Fedorov tried to use his own judgment and stepped on people's toes, redirected money, and Syrski and the general staff were not fans. I doubt Syrski cared really all that much. However, he needs to keep everyone happy. And the officer class is very heavily involved in this, creating military salaries. Even officer salaries are not great.

[Cool Zone Media Announcer]

No.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

And there's a lot of corruption and procurement and a lot of allegations of corruption and procurement, which is not something any military doesn't have, to be honest. But, yeah, that makes sense.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

So finally gets to the point where Syrsky went to Zelensky and said, look, you have to get rid of this guy. I can't work with him. Then Fedorov separately went to Zelensky and said, look, you have to get rid of this guy. I can't work with him. And then Zelensky goes to a private meeting with his party in Parliament and says, hey. Well, they both said they can't work with each other and I kind of need them to work with each other, so I should fire them both. But I can't fire Syrsky yet, so instead I'll fire Fedorov. And that's what kicked off this whole shebang.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

How much do you buy? Because the Times had a piece recently that was kind of, I mean, quoting some insiders, alleging that this was partly to do with Zelensky being jealous of Fedorov's popularity. And I've heard, I've heard rumors of that before. That has not seemed to be like the most, I don't know, believable answer. So I was kind of surprised to see the Times give so much credence to it. But I mean, do you feel like that's credible? Is that something you hear a lot or is that. Where is that coming from?

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

I guess, I mean, I have considered this a lot because it has been something saved before.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Yeah.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

When Valeri's illusiony was made to step down as top general and he was replaced by Syrsky, a lot of the kind of speculation why this move was made was because illusion was very quickly becoming the most popular political figure, public figure in Ukraine. And then we saw Budanov, Kirill Budanov, the, the head of military intelligence who is now Zelensky's chief of staff. When his star was rising and Zelensky had to fire your mock, he took the. The country's top spy, basically and put him as chief of staff. Now you don't hear about Padanov at all, except for some unflattering rumors on anonymous telegram channels. So there is kind of a pattern you can see with Zelensky seemingly defusing popular people around him so they are no longer in a position where they can be so popular. And in Solution's case, he recently announced that whenever we do have presidential elections, he does plan to stand in them. Right. So he has in fact directly declared he will be politically opposing Zelensky whenever we get back to normal politics. So how do I say this? I am a cynical bastard.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Right.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

I will believe the worst about anyone, especially a ego driven TV star slash politician. It is not difficult for me in my citizen.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Oh God, yeah.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

To look at a man and say, huh, you know what? He probably doesn't like being out Shown on the stage.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Yeah.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

At the same time, I like to hope that Zelensky has the understanding that we're fighting a full scale war and that his ego is unnecessary and detrimental to the war effort. But, but the truth of the matter is, I have no idea. It certainly can be construed that way. Let's say that I don't think construing events that way is unfair to Zelenskyy. I think that's a, that's a reasonable interpretation based on the actions that he's taken and based on, you know, the rumors and so on that come out of the office of the President.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Yeah, I mean, that, that makes sense what you're saying. I don't have trouble believing that. Now, one of the things I have noticed as I've kind of read into Fedorov and I'm wondering, and this is, we kind of are veering into some, some military theory here. But it is something that concerns me when I kind of look at some of the allegations about what he believes. And I, I, I'm not sure if fair to him, but it seems like his critics within the Ukrainian military seem to believe that he basically is a believer that drones and robotics can handle a huge amount of the fighting load. Right. And that this is like a major solution to the manpower crisis. To the extent that is sometimes accused of believing that they can handle much more of the load than is really realistic. In a way that sometimes sounds similar to me to what some people said about like Air Force generals in kind of the Post World War II period, where there's this big understanding that all we need is air power. That seems to be like the allegations against Fedorov. He's saying all we need is drone power and robotics and we can kind of use that to fill in every gap. And there's a very reasonable critique that that's not sufficient. Now, I don't know if that's fully fair to Fedorov, but it seems to be like that's how he's being characterized, certainly by his opponents.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Having listened to him speak, I'll say that the characterization is a little bit off. He might honestly believe that drones and robotics have to completely replace human warfare, but it's not like he, he lives in a fantasy world where he understands that that's a possibility that we can implement right now.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Right.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

It's more that he faces the banal mathematical fact that we cannot match Russia. We, we.

[Therapy for Black Girls Host]

Right.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

We are a much smaller country. It is mathematically impossible.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Right.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Add into that the general unpopularity of mobilization, the whole busification stuff, the fact that no one trusts our aging Soviet officer class to value their life or contribution if they are drafted or join the military.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Right.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

All of that together leads Fedorov to the I think pretty obvious conclusion that the only possible thing we can do to even start to match Russia in manpower is heavily embrace robotics. Now, I do want to say a couple of things. Fedorov is a libertarian in the American sense.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Right.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

And he's very young. He's 35. He's. He's literally my age.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Jesus.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

And this was back, I think 2017 or 18. He ran as part of. We had a tiny libertarian movement called the 510 party, which their idea was a flat 5% VAT tax, flat 10. Something else. I mean, it's stupid libertarian. I didn't ever pay much attention to it because I always ask them how old their girlfriend is and if they need to use the car seat is by paying you libertarians there.

[Cool Zone Media Announcer]

Yeah.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

And again, he is. So he may very well believe that this is the case that humans need to be taking out of. Or what's the military euphemism? Humans have to be taken out of the kill chain.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Right, Right. Removed from the kill chain.

[Cool Zone Media Announcer]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

I love the term kill chain.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

He may very well believe that he is good personal friends with Alex Karp, the CEO of Palantir. That's very true. Obviously the Omni Surveillance Corp were headed by the er, devil himself, Peter Thiel. So there's a lot of red flags.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

One of the first statements he made after getting sacked was that he's been already gotten a bunch of offers from different Silicon Valley companies. Someone close to him said that. Not that he hasn't taken.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

No, no, he said that during the briefing I was listening and he.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

It was him.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Alex Karp has already called me and offered me a job.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Oh, he said Alex Karp. Okay, great, great. I'm just remembering from a article I read now that said I wanted to be fair to him because one thing he also gets a lot of credit for is over the last six months, which he was not in his position for long, but it's been a reasonably good six months compared to some of the previous couple of years. Right. The front has stabilized in a lot of areas and there's been an incredibly successful campaign to damage Russia's oil refining capacity. That's taken out at a quarter of it. Right. And those are seen part of why he's so popular. I would imagine there's a debate as to how much credit does he deserve for both of those things. Both of these things have happened right over the last six months.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Yeah, exactly. And the, the hope was that if he was allowed to complete his reform, so his, the next big thing that he had planned to focus on was ground robotics, ground drones. The, the hope was that if he had actually been able to implement plans, we would see the same kind of sea change away from human soldier, really human infantry, into robotic soldiers. Just as we saw drones replace the sniper team, the artillery team, the mortar team. You know, so many of these kind of fundamental roles that we thought a modern military, modern combined armed military needs. Turns out you could replace all of them with drones. We don't know if that's going to be true for ground drones, but that was going to be his, his next project and it definitely helped bolster his standing. Let's say when he goes, well, first off, I'm you the drones. And second off, we don't need to throw away Ukrainian lives on worthless. Need assaults to win back half a kilometer of territory. We can use easily replaceable robotics instead.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Yeah, that's a very hard thing to argue with. I mean, especially given how it's functioned.

[Jake Brennan]

I'm Jake Brennan, and on my podcast Hollywoodland, I revisit some of the the biggest stories from Hollywood history. Separating the myths people want to believe from the reality underneath them. Like how the story of Marilyn Monroe isn't just the story of a Hollywood icon. Marilyn Monroe has become so iconic that her death can only be explained through conspiracy theories. And for some fans who can't let go, these stories have metastasized from conjecture to accepted fact. So on August 4, 1962, Marilyn Monroe died. Then the rumors started and she died again. And now we're going to set the record straight and learn about the way Marilyn Monroe actually died. The third way. Learn more about what happens when fame, media obsession and conspiracy collide. Listen to Hollywoodland on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Betrayal Weekly Narrator]

Betrayal Weekly is back with brand new stories from threatening text messages disturbing a small Midwestern town.

[Therapy for Black Girls Co-host]

It was from an unknown number. Who else is getting these messages? Why did it start with us?

[Betrayal Weekly Narrator]

To long cons and stolen identities.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Who lies about being this sick? This was the last time I ever believed a word she said.

[Betrayal Weekly Narrator]

New voices, each with the courage to tell their own story.

[Bill]

He said, I have been kidnapped.

[Therapy for Black Girls Co-host]

Okay, just try and act normal.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

He was essentially on the run.

[Bill]

Every family has secrets.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

The rug had been pulled from underneath me.

[Therapy for Black Girls Co-host]

Oh, my God. It was right in front of my face, and I didn't even see it.

[Betrayal Weekly Narrator]

Listen to Betrayal Weekly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Emily Oster]

I'm Emily Oster. I'm an economist and data expert.

[Perry Wilson]

And I'm Perry Wilson. I'm a medical doctor.

[Emily Oster]

And this is our new podcast, Wellness, actually.

[Perry Wilson]

Because you're getting a staggering amount of health and wellness information nowadays, and some of it is.

[Emily Oster]

Is awesome, and some of it is, well, actually bull. Fortunately, we're both people who know how to read studies, parse data, and can tell you what's worth trying out and what you can safely ignore.

[Perry Wilson]

Each episode, we tackle the health news of the week and then take a deeper dive into a misunderstood health and

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

wellness topic, like what's the deal with peptides?

[Perry Wilson]

What's the deal with GLP1s?

[Emily Oster]

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[Perry Wilson]

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[Emily Oster]

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[Perry Wilson]

So join us for a weekly dose of sanity. Might actually be just what the doctor

[Emily Oster]

or the economist ordered.

[Perry Wilson]

Listen to Wellness, actually on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Bill]

Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Maybe I have adult adhd. I need to look this up. Where's my phone?

[Juliana]

Juliana, your phone is hot to the touch. I think it's asking you for a break.

[Bill]

You know what? Maybe I should just ask ChatGPT.

[Juliana]

Or maybe we can ask an actual human.

[Bill]

Yes, like a couple sex therapist.

[Juliana]

Whoa, that escalated quickly.

[Bill]

But okay, because I have questions.

[Juliana]

We have questions.

[Bill]

And I bet everyone has questions like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that.

[Juliana]

How about this one? Is bribing your kids bad parenting or just negotiating?

[Bill]

Oh, and I still do need to know, why was my poop green that one time?

[Juliana]

Hypothetically. Right. Okay. Well, instead of letting the Internet guess, we've got actual people answering these exact

[Bill]

questions and laughing with us has got to be better than spending three hours down a rabbit hole online.

[Juliana]

Listen to Bill and the podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

You know, it is worth kind of noting that he was brought in as well to solve the manpower crisis, and that that certainly has not been solved. Although, you know, he was in there for six months. But, like, that still continues to be a significant issue, even with the advent of a lot more robotic fighters, which is, you know, proven successful in certain areas of the front, certainly. But it continues to be a pretty contentious and mobile front in some areas as well.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Yeah, exactly. And the fact is we still have, I don't know, maybe let's say another 10, 15 years to reach the Terminator feature where you just, you don't need human infantry. It is a liability if you have flesh and blood guys on the battlefield. We're not quite there yet. You still do need flesh and blood meat sack humans to, to do things. So mobilization is obviously a thing, but I gotta say, every single minister of defense we've had since the start of the full scale has had the brief of reforming mobilization. So he is hardly the first guy to fail.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Right?

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

The general staff was given the brief of reforming mobilization. Zelensky himself said that the office of the President had the brief of reforming mobilization. Fedorov, during his kind of exit press conference that he gave after being fired, he said this, a very interesting thing, he said that, that in order to do mobilization form in Ukraine, we need a new social contract. The fundamental social contract between Ukrainians and the state is seen by the, the average Ukrainian to be broken because of the continuous and constant corruption scandals, because of the seeming, you know, Soviet indifference and callousness towards human life. All of these factors make the Ukrainian populace not especially want to die for the state. It's not that we don't want to die for Ukraine, but no one wants to die for the Ukrainian state. And this is the fundamental issue. And until that is addressed, there is, there is no solution for mobilization except for greater repression.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Right?

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Like round people up even more, use greater force. That's the only thing you can possibly do. There is no soft handle to fix that. It's not even really a question of money. Because if you think that once you're drafted they're going to throw you in the back of a van, drive you into the middle forest, stick you there for two weeks, not teach you anything, yell and beat you, then drive you to the zero line and leave you there. That's what the average Ukrainian men man thinks is going to happen to them if they're drafted. And the fact is we have lots of stories exactly like that. So it's not exactly an unfounded fear. And until that's addressed, until the Ukrainian state can, you know, plausibly tell the Ukrainian people, look, we care about your lives. We are doing this because we are doing this to survive, not because some general wants an extra badge or an extra villa or something. And at that point, mobilization, reform can start. But, but without that change, you're, you're not Going to see anything? No, no amount of bureaucratic wrangling or raising salaries is going to result in, in any kind of mobilization bump.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Well, man, is there anything else you wanted to get to today? I think that was a really good point to make.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

I'll say this, that the, we did see that the protests did pay off. So. So I think that's the one aspect of this we haven't talked about.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a very good point.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Why he is actually doing this or why he, he is actually taking steps to remove Syrsky is because of the protests.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

So we didn't even get to that so much because that just happened hours before we recorded this. But he has announced that Syrsky is now being removed. Right? Yes, yes, yes, just happened. Sorry.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

It was always going to be case once Syrsky's name was out in public.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Right.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

The country's top general cannot be this controversial. He cannot be the guy everyone is talking about derogatorily. In a nation at war, you just, you need to have the trust of both the people and the troops. And Syrski, once this scandal had reached the level, it was clear that he no longer had the Jews to continue. But again, the reason Zelensky made these changes is because of the protests. So we learned about Fedorov's dismissal like late at night, I want to say, in the 15th. And then that evening a couple of, I think it was one ex volunteer, one ex soldier posted that we, everyone should gather out on Twitter, I think. And then that, that gained steam. That was the start of the kind of five day protest. I don't know if they're going to continue today now that Sirsky's been replaced, but they've been happening every single day this week. And again people came out first to kind of keep, to protest Federal's removal, to say, hey, keep Fedorov. Then it became clear that Federal himself had refused to continue to work with his Lansky team. He, he pretty much told Zelensky that I, I don't want any job. I wanted to the job that I had. But since you made that no longer possible, I don't want to work for you. Once that dynamic became clear, the protest shifted more towards trying to get Sersky fired or to, to get him to resign than to get Fedorov back in office, which is unlikely to happen. But the protests have been first off, they, they occurred not just in Kyiv, but pretty much in every major city, even the frontline cities, even in Zaporizhzhia, in Kharkiv, one of my journalists was in Harkiv and did a report from their protest. And these are people who are getting air bombed during the day and they're gathering in the center of their city and protesting. The scale of it, the speed of it, and the, the general societal agreement is really what, what gave these protests their steam. The same with the pro Naboo process that we saw a couple of years back or last year. The same kind of dynamic, same kind of protesting class, let's say it's younger people, you know, from 18 to like 30, typically more liberal, more progressive. However, we come out and protest not for, I mean, sometimes we do come out for gay rights, but currently it's, it's more to correct our government's personnel choices than anything else.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Right. Yeah, I mean, I guess it is positive that it matters still, you know, which is certainly in some ways a legacy still lingering of the maid on Right. Is that the government's not going to ignore that.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Yeah, yeah. I wouldn't just say it's positive. To be quite honest, I cannot think of a single other democratic country on the planet that is as responsive to the undifferentiated random cries of the masses than Ukraine.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

There's this huge negative to that.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Yeah, sorry, I, I mean, I say it like this, and it might sound like I'm saying this derogatorily, but I'm not. No, I, I think quite frankly, pretty much all liberal democratic nations in the 21st century have almost completely abandoned the democratic part.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Right.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Either people vote for local parties that simply don't matter and all the decisions are made in boardrooms that they have less than zero impact in. They got in protest and nothing happens except some kids get beaten up by cops and then nothing fundamentally changes that. That is not true. In Ukraine, we have seen multiple times where protesters go out with a concrete call and the government heeds that call. It doesn't simply ignore us, it doesn't just beat us up. It's fundamentally democratic in a way that I have not seen any other country in the world replicate so far.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Yeah, that is very much worth continuing to note and acknowledge. Although as you said, a mixed bag, because the voice of the people is not always correct about aspects of strategy and governance, as a lot of places have learned.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Yeah, exactly.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

All right, man, well, do you want to plug anything before you come out here? Tell people where they can find you?

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Yes. I am the managing editor of the new Voice of Ukraine, which is Ukraine's best and premier English language daily news site. You can read us at English NV Ua. Really easy to remember. That's English NV Ua. And listen to Ukraine Without Hype, which is a podcast from myself and my colleague Anthony Bartoway, and you can find us wherever podcasts are listened to. Just search Ukraine Without Hype.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

Awesome. Well, thank you all for listening. Thank you, Romeo for showing up again. And we'll be back tomorrow with something else.

[Cool Zone Media Announcer]

It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, Visit our website coolzone media.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts you can now find sources for It Could Happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. Hey, it's your ceiling vent. So I'm dripping. Could be the rain, could be the upstairs bathroom.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

Yikes.

[Cool Zone Media Announcer]

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[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

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[Romeo Kokrytsky]

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[Juliana]

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[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

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[Therapy for Black Girls Host]

Can superstars even exist the way they used to?

[Therapy for Black Girls Co-host]

2016 was sort of that last era of monoculture where we see still consumed things in community.

[Emily Oster]

Everybody wanted to be Beyonce at that point. I don't think we'll ever see another Rihanna. What does it mean to be black

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

and eat in America?

[Therapy for Black Girls Host]

You will never make me feel bad for being a black girl. For being a black American girl ever. From music to food to the conversations shaping black culture, right now, therapy for black girls is bringing it all to the mic. Listen to Therapy for black Girls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your your podcast.

[Norah Jones]

Hey, it's Nora Jones. And my podcast Playing along is back with more of my favorite musicians. Check out my newest episode with Finneas.

[Podcast Host (It Could Happen Here)]

So I went home and I asked Billy if she wanted to sing it. She immediately made it her own thing.

[Cool Zone Media Announcer]

You really know how to make me

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

cry when you give me those ocean eyes.

[Norah Jones]

So come hang out with us in the studio and listen to Playing along on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ryan Weiss]

Hello, my love. I'm Ryan Weiss, and For the past 15 years I've been an emotional intelligence coach and a spiritual guide. And I'm sharing with you my new podcast, Waking up with Ryan Waking Up With Ryan is a daily audio video podcast here to help you connect with yourself before the noise of the day takes over. So let's start our days together with a moment of calm that's just for you. Listen to Waking Up with ryan on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Romeo Kokrytsky]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.