Ukrainians Protest in Streets After Zelensky Ousts Defense Minister Fedorov, Air Force Deputy Commander Resigns

Since Zelensky's Cabinet reshuffle this week installed Naftogaz chief Serhiy Koretsky as prime minister and moved to push out Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, the fallout has spilled into the streets. Thursday saw crowds of over a thousand people gather in central Kyiv, according to Agence France-Presse, waving Ukrainian and EU flags, singing the national anthem, and chanting "shame" and "bring Fedorov back."

This isn't a quiet bureaucratic reshuffle. It's a public fight over who runs Ukraine's war effort, playing out while Ukraine is, by multiple accounts, in one of its stronger military positions in months.

What Fedorov Actually Said

Fedorov didn't go quietly. At a press conference in Kyiv, standing in front of a screen displaying drone imagery, he accused Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi of giving Zelensky an ultimatum: remove Fedorov or face a rupture at the top of Ukraine's military command.

"Instead of figuring out how to defeat Russia asymmetrically, which is the commander-in-chief's task, he figured out how to split the country," Fedorov told reporters, according to AFP.

Fedorov went further, telling reporters he doesn't know how Ukraine wins the war with Syrskyi in charge. That's about as direct a shot as a Cabinet official can take at a sitting general.

Zelensky, appearing alongside UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, didn't deny the conflict. He acknowledged the tension between the General Staff and the defense ministry was "systemic" and happened "at various levels," and said Syrskyi and Fedorov had only worked together because he personally mediated between them, according to the BBC.

Syrskyi's response was clipped. He wrote on Telegram that he was "proud" of defending Kyiv in 2022, said he would keep focusing on "the war and an effective strategy," and wished Fedorov "continued success," per the BBC.

The Reforms That Made Him Popular, and Enemies

Fedorov, 35, took the defense post only in January after building his reputation running Ukraine's digital transformation ministry and helping create the country's rapid drone-manufacturing pipeline. In six months at defense, he pushed open procurement rules, went after corruption, and used data analytics to try to fix front-line performance, according to CBS News.

He also went public early about the scale of Ukraine's manpower crisis, telling reporters last year that roughly 200,000 troops had deserted and about 2 million people had dodged the draft, CBS News reported. That's not a number a defense minister volunteers to make friends.

Political analyst Anatoliy Oktysiuk told AFP that Fedorov's reforms explain the backlash: "He fell out with various generals and with different drone suppliers. In other words, he really did start implementing many useful reforms that threatened certain vested interests." Oktysiuk added that Zelensky "undermined himself politically" by moving against Fedorov.

Fedorov's reforms did make enemies. Reform-minded officials who cut into procurement graft and challenge entrenched military bureaucracies typically do. Whether Syrskyi's objections were about legitimate command authority, personal turf, or something else isn't fully resolved by the available reporting, and Zelensky's own framing leaves room for both explanations.

Resignations in Protest

The backlash inside the government was immediate. Deputy Air Force Commander Pavlo Yelizarov posted his resignation letter on Facebook, writing that Fedorov's removal is "a great evil for the country's defense capability," according to CBS News. Some lawmakers reportedly followed with their own resignations.

Kyiv resident Bohdan Huryak, at the protest, told the Associated Press: "I'm not deeply invested in the internal political debates, but this is a person who shows results on the battlefield, we see results, we feel the fighting spirit and confidence in victory rising. And then, six months later, he is removed from office? Come on."

Protester Vlada Roman, 30, called the dismissal "a slap in the face of the Ukrainian people," according to the Bangkok Post.

What's Actually Unresolved

Zelensky had floated Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko as Fedorov's replacement, with parliament originally scheduled to vote Thursday. But Zelensky said Klymenko was only one name under consideration and that no formal nomination had been submitted, according to the BBC. So as of Thursday, Ukraine doesn't actually have a confirmed new defense minister, just a fired one and a name floated in the press.

Fedorov said Zelensky offered to keep him on as an adviser. He turned it down.

Washington had reportedly come to see Fedorov as a useful, modernizing figure who improved ties with the Trump administration and helped drive Ukraine's campaign against Russian fuel logistics through Crimea, per CBS News. Whether his removal complicates that relationship, or whether Klymenko or another successor can maintain it, is an open question nobody in Kyiv or Washington has answered yet.