{"id":30974,"date":"2026-08-20T18:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T18:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/30974\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T18:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T18:49:09","slug":"ousted-ukrainian-defense-chiefs-gamble-against-zelenskyy-backfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/30974\/","title":{"rendered":"Ousted Ukrainian defense chief’s gamble against Zelenskyy backfires"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bid by ousted Ukrainian Defense Minister \u200bMykhailo Fedorov to broaden a political fight with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by calling for wartime elections<\/a> appears to have backfired, failing to win over protesters who had demanded his return.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy’s decision to sack \u2060the tech-savvy and reform-minded minister in a government reshuffle in \u2060July triggered protests in Kyiv<\/a> and other cities.<\/p>\n

Many of the protesters said the dismissal of the popular young minister was poorly explained and could threaten Ukraine’s war effort against Russia<\/a>, and continued protests throughout the summer to demand Zelenskyy reinstate him.<\/p>\n

Despite the \u200bprotests, parliament on Wednesday approved a new defense minister<\/a> chosen by Zelenskyy and later that \u200bday \u2060only a few dozen people remained in a central Kyiv square where thousands once joined rare wartime protests.<\/p>\n

“When we came out to protest, we did not come with the idea that elections should be held,” 22-year-old Iryna Vasyliaka told Reuters late on Wednesday. “That is not what we were here for.”<\/p>\n

Fedorov, who warned late on Tuesday that Ukraine was facing a crisis of governance, is widely seen as one of a handful of potential challengers to Zelenskyy’s hold on power<\/a> in the fifth year of the war triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion.<\/p>\n

But opinion polls show little public appetite for elections in wartime, with Russian airstrikes ravaging towns and cities, hundreds of thousands of troops at the front and millions of compatriots living abroad or under occupation.<\/p>\n

Olena Prokopenko, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, said Fedorov had been poised to cast himself as “a statesman, a politician of a new generation” after the war, but miscalculated.<\/p>\n

“With this statement, he pretty much played \u2060on \u2060Ukrainians’ most sensitive pain points,” Prokopenko said.<\/p>\n

No feel for the people?<\/p>\n

A host of obstacles would need to be overcome for Ukraine to hold wartime elections.<\/p>\n

An Aug. 5 poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, conducted after the pro-Fedorov protests began, found 57% of Ukrainians want elections to be held only after fighting ends.<\/p>\n

“Even amid these protests, people didn’t want to hold elections,” said executive director Anton Grushetskyi. “Why Fedorov didn’t understand this remains an open question.”<\/p>\n

Appearing to announce the end of protests on Wednesday, chief organizer and veteran combat medic Dmytro Koziatynskyi said he “cannot imagine” how to hold polls with troops at the front.<\/p>\n

It marked a stark reversal in fortune for Fedorov, who was credited with spearheading tough reforms and pursuing an innovation-driven approach to fighting Russia’s bigger army.<\/p>\n

Vasyliaka and others said they had \u2060joined the protests because they wanted authorities to respond to public concerns over Fedorov’s sudden dismissal.<\/p>\n

They had also rallied against unpopular military commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, accused by Fedorov of blocking his work. Zelenskyy later replaced Syrskyi with a younger military reformer.<\/p>\n

Fedorov then ratcheted up pressure on Zelenskyy by refusing any other role than his old posting, \u200bturning down the offer of deputy prime minister.<\/p>\n

Yet his call for elections, on the eve of parliament’s confirmation of successor Yevhenii Khmara, appeared \u200bto be a clumsy misstep, one opposition lawmaker told Reuters.<\/p>\n

“This demonstrates that (Fedorov) doesn’t have a presidential-level feel for the country,” said the lawmaker, who requested anonymity to discuss a sensitive political issue.<\/p>\n

Prokopenko described Fedorov’s move as a “false start” that could burn his \u2060political capital before \u200celections can realistically be \u200cheld.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy the survivor<\/p>\n

The recent protests were the latest headache for Zelenskiy, whose wartime tenure has been \u2060marked by periodic scandals over alleged corruption or mismanagement.<\/p>\n

Wednesday’s confirmation vote for Khmara, \u200ca former top special forces commander, followed hours after anti-graft police unveiled an operation<\/a> against a deputy chief of staff whom Zelenskyy promptly fired. She denied wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

Still, Zelenskyy’s approval rating \u200bhas remained generally stable at around 60%. Public \u2060morale has also been buoyed by a recent successful Ukrainian campaign of strikes on Russian energy infrastructure and \u2060logistics.<\/p>\n

“Mainly, people trust him because he’s a wartime leader, and they say, ‘We should rally around the flag to fight Russian aggression’,” said \u2060sociologist Grushetskyi.<\/p>\n

He said Ukrainians would like \u200bto see fresh faces, including soldiers and military leaders, in power, something that would be virtually impossible if voting were held in wartime.<\/p>\n

“Elections without good candidates would be less legitimate in the eyes of the public,” Grushetskyi said.<\/p>\n

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