Protests in Ukraine's cities against Zelensky's removal of defence minister

Protests have erupted in multiple Ukrainian cities after President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. In Kyiv, demonstrators gathered Thursday morning, holding signs that read “Hands off Fedorov” and “Stop sabotaging victory!” while chanting “Shame!”. Zelensky has not yet explained his decision, which has sparked considerable upset among commentators, military officials and sections of civil society. Fedorov, 35, was appointed only in January but has been credited with energising the ministry, leading an anti‑corruption drive and using data to analyse and improve frontline performance. Members of parliament were scheduled to vote Thursday on the proposed replacement, Ihor Klymenko, who currently heads the interior ministry. Some observers in Ukraine have linked Fedorov’s dismissal to tensions between him and the more conventionally minded Commander‑in‑Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi; others have pointed to his perceived failure to accelerate reforms to military mobilisation. “This is the worst mistake Zelensky has made during his full presidency,” Oleksandr, a Ukrainian soldier, told the BBC. He had signed up to the service earlier this twelvemonth due to the fact that helium trusted Fedorov's squad and vision, helium said: "I don't cognize anyone who supports the determination to regenerate him. Not wrong the army, not successful society." "I person tons of friends successful the military. Lots of them died. I don't privation this to spell on," Maria Lavrynets, 31, told the BBC astatine a protestation successful Ivan Franko quadrate successful cardinal Kyiv. "We spot [Fedorov's] results. We spot the information of the soldiers, we should basal for them." When he was brought in, Fedorov set about restructuring the defence ministry, which many in Ukraine view as overly bogged down in bureaucracy and outdated Soviet‑era attitudes. A former minister of digital transformation, he was active from the early days of Russia’s full‑scale invasion in 2022, helping to establish the volunteer “IT Army of Ukraine” to launch cyber‑attacks against Russian targets. Later, he led a successful fundraising campaign called the Army of Drones and introduced elements of “gamification” to the war effort, designing a system that awarded Ukrainian military units credits for hitting Russian assets. Fedorov’s focus on drones, high‑tech warfare and procurement continued after he became defence minister. In the early days of his tenure he also asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to block Russia from using Starlink satellites for drone attacks—a move that caused significant disruption to Russian frontline operations and advances. His ministry also played a significant role in Ukraine’s recent strikes on the Moscow‑occupied Crimean peninsula, which last period Fedorov vowed to “cut off” from Russia entirely through the use of mid‑range drone strikes. In a Facebook post soon after his dismissal, Fedorov listed his achievements and said he would “continue… to decision the force done asymmetry, velocity of innovation, and organisational strength”. Prominent blogger Serhii Sternenko, whom Fedorov brought on as an adviser, hailed his former record as “the champion curate of defence successful our full history” and lamented the “bureaucratic obstacles and artificial delays” he said had stood in the way of deeper reform. Pavlo Yelizarov, a renowned drone unit commander, resigned from his position as deputy commander of the Ukrainian Air Force in protest over Fedorov’s sacking—a move he described as “a large evil for the country's defence capability”. Additional reporting by Anastasiia Levchenko.