A few hours after Russian strikes, hundreds of Ukrainians gathered Thursday in Kyiv, as in different cities across the country, to protest against the resignation of popular Defense Minister Mykhaïlo Fedorov, as part of a reshuffle wanted by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
• Also read: Ukraine’s Defense Minister announces resignation
• Also read: Towards a government reshuffle in Ukraine: what we know after Zelensky’s announcement
Seen as a reformer of the Ukrainian army, focused on the inclusion of new technologies on the front to save soldiers’ lives, Mykhaïlo Fedorov, appointed to this post last January, declared Wednesday evening that he was leaving his position.
This departure, seen as a dismissal after President Volodymyr Zelensky’s announcement of a government reshuffle, causes serious concern for the future of Ukrainian troops who have succeeded in recent months in stopping Russian momentum on the front and increasing pressure on Moscow through strikes on distant targets in Russia.
In Kyiv, AFP journalists observed several hundred people gathered in a square in the city center, waving Ukrainian and European flags and chanting “shame” and “give back Fedorov”, the day after the announcement of his departure.
“Fedorov’s goal is for people to fight less and drones to fight more. And he proved it, not with words, but with actions,” Margarita Grechko, a 27-year-old protester who works in military technology, told AFP.
The resignation ratified Tuesday by Parliament of Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, thanked two days earlier by Mr. Zelensky, necessarily leads to the departure of ministers from his government.
If the reshuffle is not yet final, the prospect or probability that Mr. Fedorov will not be reappointed has aroused the anger of part of the population.
” For what ? »
According to Ukrainian media, demonstrations also took place in Odessa (south), Kharkiv (northeast), Dnipro (central-east) and Lviv (west), where around a hundred people gathered.
The demonstrators gathered in the same square as the anti-corruption rallies that shook Ukraine last summer, after a major corruption scandal affecting President Zelensky’s entourage.
Mr. Fedorov “uncovered the corruption, the embezzlement, and he began to act; he didn’t hide and he wasn’t convenient,” says Margarita Grechko. “He did everything right, so why was he left out? »
The Ukrainian president had entrusted this young 35-year-old minister with the task of injecting new energy into Kyiv’s war machine, which has been fighting against the Russian invasion for more than four years.
Mr. Fedorov spent much of the war promoting advanced technologies, including drones, to alleviate shortages of soldiers, money and ammunition.
Among the demonstrators, many held signs against the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandr Syrsky, whose conflict with Mr. Fedorov is considered by the Ukrainian media to have triggered the dismissal.
“He’s a butcher, the soldiers complain about him; he really carries out cannon fodder assaults in which our people simply die,” said Margarita Grechko to AFP.
Ukraine has been frequently rocked by scandals over the mobilization of Ukrainian soldiers as well as the methods of waging war since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country began in February 2022.
Resignations from the ministry
For many, Mr. Fedorov embodies renewal in the face of an army that many accuse of being stagnated by corruption and a bureaucracy inherited from the Soviet Union.
In the wake of the Minister of Defense, the second-in-command of the Ukrainian Air Force Pavlo Yelizarova also announced his resignation on social networks, claiming to have joined the defense forces in 2022 to “win, rather than engage in symbolic gestures”.
The day before, it was Serguiï Sternenko, advisor to the ministry, who announced that he was also leaving his position in a message on Telegram.
“I hope that today we will succeed in keeping Fedorov as Defense Minister,” Roman Vlada, a 30-year-old entrepreneur, told AFP.
“I think Zelensky is afraid. Zelensky is afraid of effective people. »
No announcement has yet been made by President Volodymyr Zelensky regarding a replacement for Mykhailo Fedorov, and his resignation has not yet been voted on by the Ukrainian Parliament.
