Protests took place in several Ukrainian cities against President Volodymyr Zelensky’s surprise dismissal of popular Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
A crowd of people – mostly young people – gathered in kyiv, holding signs reading “Hands off Fedorov” and “Stop sabotaging the victory!” and chanting “Shame!”.
Zelensky has not yet explained his decision, which is causing significant discontent among commentators and the military as well as part of civil society.
Fedorov, 35, was only appointed in January, but he has been credited with energizing the ministry, leading the fight against corruption and using data to analyze and try to improve performance on the front lines.
MPs were due to vote on Thursday on the proposed replacement for Defense Minister Ihor Klymenko, who currently heads the Interior Ministry.
As part of Zelensky’s reshuffle, parliament approved the appointment of oil and gas boss Serhiy Koretsky as prime minister, following the resignation of Yulia Svyrydenko earlier this week.
Rumors circulated that Mykhailo Fedorov’s dismissal was linked to tensions between him and Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.
At a press conference on Thursday, Fedorov all but confirmed this, saying he had suggested Zelensky replace Syrskyi and Chief of the General Staff Andrii Hnatov.
“When the president said he had no plans to replace Syrsky, I… said I would learn to work with him,” Fedorov said. But “all the initiatives we proposed were blocked,” he added.
“Instead of finding a way to defeat Russia asymmetrically — which is the job of the commander in chief — he found a way to divide our country,” Fedorov said of Syrski.
Fedorov also revealed that Zelensky offered him to stay on his team as an advisor, but he declined.
He was not trying to upset the president, he explained, saying he was “confident” that Zelensky “hears the Ukrainian people, knows what to do and that the situation will be resolved 100%.”
“I don’t think he has chosen his side yet in the Syrsky affair. I spoke to him today and told him that I am acting according to my conscience,” he said.
“This is the worst mistake Zelensky has made during his entire presidency,” Oleksandr, a Ukrainian soldier, told the BBC.
He enlisted in the army earlier this year because he trusted the team and Fedorov’s vision. “I don’t know anyone who supports the decision to replace him. Neither in the army nor in society.”
“I have a lot of friends in the army. Many of them died. I don’t want this to continue,” Maria Lavrynets, 31, told the BBC during a protest on Ivan Franko Square in central kyiv. “We see [Fedorov’s] results. We see the motivation of the soldiers, we must defend them.”
When he was appointed, Fedorov set about restructuring the Defense Ministry, which many in Ukraine see as too mired in bureaucracy and old Soviet-era attitudes.
A former Minister of Digital Transformation, he was active from the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 by creating a voluntary “cyber army of Ukraine” to launch cyberattacks against the Russians.
He later led a successful fundraising campaign called Drone Army and introduced elements of “gamification” to the war, designing a system that awarded Ukrainian military units credits for striking Russian assets.
Fedorov’s interest in drones, high-tech warfare, and government procurement continued after he became defense minister.
Early in his tenure, he also asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to block Russia from using Starlink satellites for drone attacks – a move that significantly disrupted Russia’s frontline operations and advancement.
His ministry also played a significant role in recent Ukrainian attacks on the Moscow-occupied Crimean peninsula, which Fedorov last month promised to completely “cut off” from Russia, using medium-range drone strikes.
In a Facebook post shortly after his dismissal, Fedorov listed his accomplishments and said he would “continue…to defeat the enemy through asymmetry, speed of innovation and organizational strength.”
Prominent blogger Serhii Sternenko, whom Fedorov recruited as an adviser, hailed his former boss as “the best defense minister in our entire history” and lamented the “bureaucratic obstacles and artificial delays” that he said stood in the way of deeper reform.
Famous drone unit commander Pavlo Elizarov resigned as deputy commander of the Ukrainian Air Force to protest Fedorov’s dismissal – a decision he called “a great harm to the country’s defense capability.”
