35-year-old Ukraine Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov was removed from his position about a month ago.  Despite being heralded as the reason for Ukraine’s successful defense and strikes against Russia, there was internal friction about control of the war spending (ie ‘procurement). The old guard military leaders were unwilling to give up their ability to enrich themselves and their families, Fedorov was removed by President Zelenskyy.

In this CBS interview with Fedorov the young outsider, who is still connected to the war effort and holds strong relationships with both Palantir (Alex Karp) and SpaceX (Elon Musk), outlines the current status of the conflict and gives his predictions on what comes next.

Fedorov states that Ukraine ballistic missiles should be online within three to six months.  He also predicts the ground conflict will be fully autonomous within a year, with robots and drones engaged in most of the combat operations.  As a consequence, Eastern Ukraine is now the real time proving ground for an entirely new type of technological warfare.

The interview is interesting both from a narrative perspective, the Hollywood-lite construct which includes elements of the former ‘find Kony’ performances, the youthful drama – David vs Goliath, the handsome characters etc., and from a perspective of Fedorov’s contemplative responses.  WATCH:

When Fedorov speaks of “destroying 200 Russians” (6:28 of video), he is speaking about destroying the 200 Wildberries warehouses the Ukraine government is convinced will result in the collapse the Russian economy.

If you get the feeling -a general sense- that we are watching a scripted performance of sorts, that’s because we are.

World War Reddit continues.

Remember when the air-raid sirens were sounded exactly at the moment when Joe Biden was walking through Kiev with Zlenenskyy?

At the end of all of this effort is the EU/NATO goal of a fully operational war against Russia.  No reasonable person in the EU wants this outcome, no ordinary citizen in the U.K wants war with Russia and only a tiny percentage of Americans would support it.  However, 80% of the British/EU political class and around 75% of the Washington DC political class would immediately welcome this outcome.

Europe is burning through their spending of the confiscated €300 billion Russian sovereign wealth fund.  The money will be completely gone within a year as it is the funding mechanism for almost all Ukraine support.  When you think about this in very practical terms, this makes the EU war against Russia a foregone conclusion.

In my opinion, the decision to spend that confiscated Russian asset wealth is what changed in early June when Zelenskyy visited King Charles in London.  What was once avoidable is now ultimately only a matter of time.

Unless someone is willing to step into the finance side and repay Russia, a western conflict with the Russian Federation to avoid the issue seems to be the overwhelming likelihood.  In the interim, Eastern Ukraine remains a meat grinder.