{"id":19105,"date":"2026-07-21T03:52:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T03:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/19105\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T03:52:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T03:52:32","slug":"protests-shake-zelensky-government-after-dismissal-of-ukrainian-defense-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/19105\/","title":{"rendered":"Protests shake Zelensky government after dismissal of Ukrainian defense minister\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

People gather to denounce President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s decision to dismiss Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov after six months in the post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, July 19, 2026. [AP Photo\/Dan Bashakov]<\/p>\n

The Ukrainian ruling class and military are in an immense crisis following the firing of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov and the reshuffling of President Volodymyr Zelensky\u2019s cabinet last week.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, around 10,000 protesters gathered in Kiev near the\u00a0Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theatre demanding the dismissal of current Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and the reinstatement of Federov. Smaller protests were also held in Odessa, Lviv, Lutsk, Dnipro, Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, Chernivtsi, Rivne, and Ivano-Frankivsk, and elsewhere. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The protests have shaken the Zelensky government, which has been embroiled in a number of corruption scandals, involving several of Zelensky\u2019s closest allies. However, these protests cannot be characterized as \u201canti-war.\u201d Rather, they have been dominated by frustrated pro-war veterans and upper middle class elements from Ukraine\u2019s so-called \u201ccivil society,\u201d who support the war in principle but are critical of Zelensky\u2019s conduct of it.\u00a0Protesters in Kiev were photographed carrying placards with Federov\u2019s name, explicitly backing the continuation of the disastrous war with Russia that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers and youth, both Ukrainian and Russian.<\/p>\n

Fedorov\u2019s firing has also drawn criticism from influential Ukrainian politicians, the Western media and, behind closed doors, NATO politicians. Kiev\u2019s mayor Vitaly Klitschko, who played a prominent role in the 2014 Western backed coup and maintains close ties to German imperialism in particular, openly criticized Fedorov\u2019s firing as a \u201cbig mistake.\u201d The British Guardian described the move as \u201cshocking,\u201d writing that it \u201cstartled senior European officials.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Saturday, well-aware of the precarious situation of his government, Zelensky hinted that he may be reconsidering his decision.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere were many consultations yesterday and today. Of course, I hear what people are saying,\u201d Zelensky said, noting that he had spoken with both Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi and Fedorov. \u201cDecisions regarding the army will be developed,\u201d Zelensky said.<\/p>\n

Following his dismissal Fedorov revealed that he had recommended to Zelensky that both Syrskyi and Chief of the General Staff Andrii Hnatov be replaced due to their opposition to Fedorov\u2019s reform initiatives. But Zelensky ultimately rejected this recommendation and sided with Syrskyi.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the president said he did not plan to replace Syrskyi, I… said I would learn to work with him,\u201d Fedorov stated at his own press conference. But \u201call the initiatives we proposed were blocked,\u201d he added. Fedorov also accused Syrskyi of enabling corruption.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tensions between Fedorov and Syrskyi have come to the fore as Ukraine, with the backing of both the EU and the US, has significantly expanded and intensified long-range drone strikes deep into Russian territory. Fedorov, just 35 years old, was appointed to the post of Defense Minister only six months ago and has been primarily associated with this intensification of long-range drone warfare and the \u201cgamification\u201d of targets hit by Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian forces have also ramped up their efforts to carry out drone strikes on Crimea, which Fedorov has vowed to \u201ccut off\u201d from Russia entirely. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Both the Guardian and the Financial Times described the conflict between Fedorov and Syrskyi as one between a young and tech-savvy reformer, and a representative of the \u201cold guard\u201d within the Ukrainian military. The New York Times praised Fedorov as \u201cUkraine\u2019s Drone Warfare Mastermind\u201d and reported that his firing came after he had blocked purchases of artillery ammunition in favor of drones.<\/p>\n

Praised by the Western media as a high-tech reformer, Fedorov has also cultivated ties with the country\u2019s notorious far-right groups and counts neo-Nazi blogger Sergio Sternenko as a personal advisor. As a former board member and head of the Odessa section of the neo-Nazi Right Sector group, Sternenko played a prominent role in the 2014 Odessa Massacre of 48 left-wing activists at the Trades Union building.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Sternenko has described Federov as \u201cthe best minister of defense in our entire history\u201d and criticized the \u201cbureaucratic obstacles and artificial delays\u201d which, according to Sternenko, had delayed bigger reforms of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.<\/p>\n

In the days following Fedorov\u2019s dismissal, Ukrainian forces have dramatically ramped up long-range drone and maritime attacks, successfully hitting Russian oil depots, shadow fleet tankers in the Black Sea, and major logistics centers deep inside Russian territory, including facilities near Moscow. Such strikes are part of a strategy specifically championed by Fedorov. <\/p>\n

The expanding drone strikes of the past weeks and months have created a serious fuel crisis in Russia, one of the largest oil producers in the world. They are also claiming a growing death toll. On Sunday, a Ukrainian strike on a warehouse of the Russian online retailer Wildberries in Kotovsk, in the Tambov region, killed at least seven workers, injuring 25 more. The town is located approximately 360 kilometers\u00a0 (220 miles) from the Ukrainian border.<\/p>\n

A second Wildberries warehouse was also hit outside of Moscow. One worker who was injured during the strikes later died from his injuries, according to Russian officials. Russia retaliated with a large wave of strikes on Ukraine\u2019s capital Kiev.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Western media have celebrated these strikes as a sign that Ukraine could \u201cwin\u201d the war, the increased reliance on drones is not least of all a response to the massive desertion crisis facing the Ukrainian army. According to an April report from public broadcasting (PBS) in the US, an estimated 150,000 service members were missing from their units as the war entered its fifth year.<\/p>\n

Soldiers interviewed in the report stated that they they now viewed the NATO-backed proxy war as a sham in which countless soldiers were being needlessly slaughtered. \u201cI thought people would be valued. I thought there would be some kind of support there. Well, I got there, and I realized that the commanders were sending people to their deaths. It was crazy,\u201d Andriy told PBS.<\/p>\n

The World Socialist Web Site is the voice of the working class and the leadership of the international socialist movement. We rely entirely on the support of our readers. Please donate today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People gather to denounce President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s decision to dismiss Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov after six months in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[78,66,25,26,170],"class_list":["post-19105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-eu","tag-nato","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-zelensky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19105","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=19105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}