"For me it was a surprise to learn that we had a conflict with the minister,” Syrskyi wrote.
“I considered our relationship professional: dealing with difficult issues and different positions. That is how it should be between two institutions during a major war.”
He added an apology directed at Fedorov by patronymic: "If I offended anyone: Mykhailo Albertovych, sorry. I can be harsh. But I ask you, and everyone now watching this story with fascination, to focus not on the personal but on the global — on victory."
"Ukraine is bigger than Fedorov, Syrskyi, and any of us."
He argued the country holds because of its army, institutions, and millions of people doing their jobs, not because of irreplaceable individuals, and warned that reducing the war to a fight between two people would be a great help to Moscow.
The general said the polarization goes beyond him and
Fedorov. "I see people dividing into the 'Fedorov camp' and the 'Syrskyi
camp.' As soon as an issue related to the war or the military is politicized,
it is reduced to a slogan. But every issue now debated online — contracts,
procurement, mobilization — is far more complicated than any post about it.
Slogans do not make the decisions on which people’s lives depend," he
said.