Protests Flare in Kyiv Over Ouster of Popular Defense Minister

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s dismissal of the popular defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, triggered a wave of public criticism, dismay among foreign allies, and protests across the country.

(Bloomberg) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s dismissal of the popular defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, triggered a wave of public criticism, dismay among foreign allies, and protests across the country. Thousands of people rallied near a theater in central Kyiv early on Thursday to oppose Zelenskyy’s decision to remove the youngest minister in the government. Fedorov, 35, has won widespread praise for his focus on developing Ukraine’s drone capabilities, but has clashed with the military’s top brass.

European officials and diplomats are highly critical of his ouster and view the decision as damaging for Ukraine, according to people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to speak freely about the issue. The minister has won plaudits from many Ukrainians, including soldiers, as an efficient reformer and a key contributor to Kyiv’s latest battlefield successes, including relentless drone strikes that triggered fuel shortages across Russia. His dismissal is likely to raise concern about Zelenskyy’s judgment at a time when momentum has shifted in favor of Kyiv and as the president is lobbying allies for more air-defense support to prepare Ukraine for the winter.

Fedorov was dismissed after only six months in the job as part of a reshuffle that’s set to install Sergii Koretskyi, the chief executive officer of a state-run energy company, as Ukraine’s next prime minister on Thursday. The defense minister got into a standoff with Ukraine’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, and other senior generals, according to a person familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity because the issue is sensitive. Fedorov didn’t elaborate on the reason for his dismissal in a social media post late on Wednesday.

“We should have been even more decisive in dismissing those who stood in the way of reform,” he wrote in a Facebook post. The protests erupted almost exactly a year after thousands of Ukrainians took to the streets across the country to oppose legislation that would have effectively defanged the country’s two anti-corruption agencies. Zelenskyy eventually reversed course and dropped the legislation in the face of the popular outrage and under pressure from international allies.

Fedorov was promoted to defense minister in the previous government reshuffle in January that came in the wake of a major corruption scandal. He was previously deputy prime minister in charge of Ukraine’s digital transformation. He moved to ramp up production of combat drones, which proved highly effective in Ukraine’s operations including in strikes behind Russian lines on logistics supplies, and to increase military pay to encourage more volunteers to join the army.

He pledged to audit military personnel to identify soldiers serving in the rear who could be reassigned to the frontline, and to overhaul military recruitment offices, which have become a frequent target of public anger for their heavy-handed methods of drafting soldiers. Fedorov’s efforts to revamp the military proved too sweeping for Zelenskyy, a person familiar with the matter said. For instance, he dismissed all the deputy ministers who’d served under his predecessor, including two highly experienced generals.

The minister’s relationship with Syrskyi, who is often regarded in Ukraine as an old-school general, has been tense, another person said. —With assistance from Alberto Nardelli, Kollen Post, Olesia Safronova and Julius Domoney.