{"id":17753,"date":"2026-07-16T14:29:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/17753\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T14:29:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T14:29:55","slug":"ukraines-ousted-defense-minister-attacks-the-militarys-old-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/17753\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine\u2019s Ousted Defense Minister Attacks the Military\u2019s Old Guard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ukraine\u2019s ousted defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov<\/a>, issued a fervent defense on Thursday of his efforts to modernize the Ukrainian military and directly attacked the country\u2019s top general as thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets to protest Mr. Fedorov\u2019s dismissal.<\/p>\n

At a news conference in Kyiv, the capital, Mr. Fedorov said that he had urged President Volodymyr Zelensky to remove his primary antagonist in the military hierarchy, Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander in chief, but that the president declined.<\/p>\n

Mr. Fedorov, who clashed repeatedly with Mr. Syrskyi while championing a high-tech vision of warfare dominated by drones, accused the commander in chief of \u201cblocking all of our initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of figuring out how to defeat Russia asymmetrically,\u201d Mr. Fedorov, 35, said, referring to the drone campaign, Mr. Syrskyi \u201cfigured out how to split the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a social media post, Mr. Syrskyi, 60, did not directly address Mr. Fedorov\u2019s accusations but said that the former defense minister\u2019s news conference had been possible only because of the military\u2019s successes in defending Ukraine. \u201cWe need to focus on the war and on an effective strategy that is currently demonstrating concrete results,\u201d Mr. Syrskyi wrote, thanking Mr. Fedorov for his service.<\/p>\n

Mr. Zelensky acknowledged the rift that had led to the shake-up and the protests, saying he would have preferred unity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn such circumstances, you have to choose one side or the other,\u201d he said at a news conference alongside Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, who was visiting Kyiv.<\/p>\n

Ukrainians rallied in cities across the country to demand a reversal of Mr. Fedorov\u2019s dismissal just six months into his tenure. The protesters were dismayed that Mr. Zelensky had ousted his defense minister<\/a> just as many military analysts said the war had turned in Ukraine\u2019s favor. The shift is more marked than any since the conflict\u2019s first months, when Russia endured a series of defeats.<\/p>\n

The demonstrations were only the second large street protests in Ukraine during more than four years of war. Rallies also took place last year, against a move by Mr. Zelensky to neuter anticorruption agencies.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, protesters poured into a square in central Kyiv. They turned out in Odesa<\/a>, in the south, and in Lviv, in the west. In the frontline city of Kharkiv, in the northeast, more than 300 protesters with cardboard signs crowded sidewalks, chanting \u201cShame, shame, shame!\u201d Their numbers grew as the morning wore on.<\/p>\n

\u201cHands off Fedorov!\u201d one sign read. \u201cWhy break what\u2019s working?\u201d read another.<\/p>\n

Mr. Fedorov<\/a> is a prominent proponent of the use of unmanned systems in the war. He had come to symbolize Ukraine\u2019s success in using long-range drones to strike military and oil industry targets inside Russia and to wage an intense campaign to cut off occupied Crimea.<\/p>\n

Many protesters expressed despair over his removal, seeing it as a victory for an old guard inside the military and for a defense industry that had disagreed with Mr. Fedorov\u2019s vision for the future of war. Variations of \u201cFedorov is innovation, old grandpas are degeneration\u201d appeared on many of the cardboard signs.<\/p>\n

Mr. Fedorov, in his remarks on Thursday, acknowledged the anger on the streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday we see that the Ukrainian people have taken a stand,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cWhy is it that now, when hopes have emerged and the initiative has been seized, this trajectory is breaking?\u201d<\/p>\n

At the protest in Kharkiv, Maria Chaplihina, 12, stood quietly with her grandfather, holding a sign that read \u201cBring Back Fedorov.\u201d It was her first time protesting, Maria said. Most of her friends were home, she added, but she felt it was important to come out and make her feelings known.<\/p>\n

Winning the war is the most important thing, she said, and Mr. Fedorov had been doing great work.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur president wants to overthrow him because he\u2019s doing a good job,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t like it, and neither do I.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want the president to hear us,\u201d she added, as her grandfather looked on, proud of her English and her civic sensibility. \u201cWe need to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

The call for Thursday\u2019s street protests came from Dmytro Koziatynsky, a war veteran who in July orchestrated the demonstrations against Mr. Zelensky\u2019s crackdown on anticorruption agencies.<\/p>\n

Those demonstrations, known as the \u201ccardboard protests\u201d for their hastily drawn signs, ultimately led Mr. Zelensky to reverse course<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, at least 1,000 people gathered in the square in central Kyiv, at a spot within earshot of Mr. Zelensky\u2019s office on Bankova Street. The crowd of mostly young people stamped their feet, waving signs and demanding the resignation of Mr. Syrskyi, the commander in chief.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really worry about what is happening now,\u201d said Andriy Fedun, 54, a retired psychologist.<\/p>\n

He said he previously supported Mr. Zelensky, admiring the president\u2019s diplomacy in rallying the world to Ukraine\u2019s side, but believed that firing a popular defense minister just as the war turned in Ukraine\u2019s favor was a mistake.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Russians dream of our having internal problems,\u201d he said. \u201cWhy remove him now?\u201d<\/p>\n

As images of demonstrations ricocheted across social media, Mr. Zelensky called them a sign of a healthy system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are fighting for freedom and democracy, so it seems to me that we are doing everything right,\u201d he said during his news conference with Mr. Starmer, since \u201cwe can ensure that even during wartime, with all the difficulties and restrictions, people are able to express their will.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least one senior military official said he was resigning in protest of Mr. Fedorov\u2019s dismissal: Col. Pavlo Yelizarov, the deputy commander of Ukraine\u2019s Air Forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great evil for the country\u2019s defense capability,\u201d he wrote<\/a> in a Facebook post alongside a resignation letter, warning that abandoning Mr. Fedorov\u2019s strategic air-defense reforms would lead to more damage from Russian strikes.<\/p>\n

Many other Ukrainians shared their dismay on social media, including DeepState, a Ukrainian organization with ties to the military that tracks battlefield movements. \u201cDismiss Syrskyi!\u201d DeepState wrote in a post on Telegram, where it has more than 765,000 followers.<\/p>\n

In Kharkiv, Kateryna Arkhypova, a protester who works at an IT company, said that Ukraine could win the war only \u201cby having a young, reformed system with new approaches, rather than with outdated Soviet approaches to life, war and regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some serving soldiers joined the demonstrations. Nazariy Yeremenko, 25, protested what he called a \u201cglaring injustice,\u201d saying he hoped that \u201cthe power of the people, the power of free speech, will bring more sanity to the legislative system of Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed to Ukraine\u2019s deep strikes into Russia, its campaign to cut off Crimea and its attacks on Moscow to ramp up pressure on President Vladimir V. Putin as proof of Mr. Fedorov\u2019s value.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and my brothers-in-arms, we see an increase in efficiency,\u201d he said. The crowd behind him chanted \u201cParliament, say no,\u201d urging lawmakers to reject Mr. Zelensky\u2019s choice to replace Mr. Fedorov, reported to be the interior minister, Ihor Klymenko.<\/p>\n

Mr. Fedorov\u2019s departure comes during a broader government reshuffling that has included the resignation of Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko<\/a>. Mr. Zelensky replaced her with Serhiy Koretsky, the chief executive of the national oil and gas company.<\/p>\n

While Parliament voted to approve the nomination of Mr. Koretsky and other ministers, the vote for defense minister was delayed, a possible sign that Mr. Zelensky could face trouble in gaining approval for his choice.<\/p>\n

In his remarks at the news conference, Mr. Zelensky said he was still considering whom to nominate.<\/p>\n

Nataliia Novosolova contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukraine\u2019s ousted defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, issued a fervent defense on Thursday of his efforts to modernize the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[198,197,6252,417,2965,169,2966,7113,26,171,170],"class_list":["post-17753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-appointments-and-executive-changes","tag-defense-and-military-forces","tag-demonstrations","tag-drones-pilotless-planes","tag-fedorov","tag-kyiv-ukraine","tag-mykhailo","tag-protests-and-riots","tag-ukraine","tag-volodymyr","tag-zelensky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}