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Protests erupted in Kyiv and several other Ukrainian cities on Thursday against the removal of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, a day after he announced his resignation as part of a sweeping government reshuffle ordered by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported that around 1,000 people had gathered by 9:30 a.m. near the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theatre in Kyiv, with the crowd continuing to grow.
Protesters carried signs reading "Bring Back Fedorov," "Finally start serving the people," "Hands off Fedorov," "The enemy is celebrating, are you?" and "Reforms must continue," among others, and chanted slogans including "We are not indifferent," "One united Ukraine," "Shame," and "Ukraine is not Russia."
No public order violations or provocations were observed, according to the Interfax-Ukraine correspondent.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporters in Kyiv also saw hundreds gathered on a central square waving Ukrainian and EU flags, chanting "shame" and "bring Fedorov back."
RBC-Ukraine, citing Suspilne, reported a rally of several hundred people near the same theater, which sits close to the presidential office and was the site of last July's so-called "cardboard protest" in support of Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies, NABU and SAP, a protest that at the time succeeded in influencing a government decision.
Similar rallies were announced on social media for other Ukrainian cities, including Kharkiv, Lviv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Cherkasy, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi, Lutsk, Chernivtsi, Ternopil, and Vinnytsia.
Security at the Kyiv rally was provided by several dozen law enforcement officers, including the National Police's Dialogue Police unit.
Veteran Dmytro Koziatynskyi, who organized the protest, wrote on social media beforehand: "Friends, it is impossible to keep tolerating what is happening with our government. The defense minister is being removed during effective (finally!) reforms, replaced by someone under whom any reforms can be forgotten. We will never defeat Russia as long as our army and our ministries are ruled by the same total stagnation and corruption."
Numerous politicians, veterans, civic figures, and public personalities had previously announced their intention to join the protest.
Fedorov confirmed his resignation on Wednesday in a lengthy post on Facebook, listing achievements from his tenure, which began in January.
"It has been a great honor to serve the Ukrainian people as defense minister," he wrote, highlighting the expansion of drone production and use since Russia's 2022 invasion and the start of sweeping army reforms.
His resignation followed the Ukrainian parliament's approval Tuesday of Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko's resignation after a year in office.
According to Ukrainian media reports, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko is expected to be proposed as Fedorov's successor.
In his own farewell post, Fedorov acknowledged unfinished business, saying he regretted not moving more decisively during his tenure to remove people he said had slowed reforms within the ministry.
He said the ministry's NATO-standard organizational transformation had not been fully completed, that not all procurement had been shifted to a tender-based system, and that a culture of accountability for decisions had not been fully established.
He thanked Ukraine's defenders, his team, and his family, and said he would continue working toward the mission he had brought to the ministry: defeating the enemy through "asymmetry, speed of innovation, and strength of organization."
According to Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak, Zelenskyy told lawmakers from his Servant of the People party that Fedorov had a long-running conflict with Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.
Ukrainian media also reported that Zelenskyy had said "ideally, both Fedorov and Syrskyi should be dismissed, but that he cannot do so now," and that Zelenskyy blamed Fedorov for failing to implement reforms of Ukraine's territorial recruitment and social support centers (TCCs).
Sources within the ruling parliamentary faction told Ukrainska Pravda that Fedorov would remain part of the president's team, with his future role expected to become clearer the following week.
Following the announcement, Fedorov's advisers Serhiy "Flash" Beskrestnov and Serhiy Sternenko said they were stepping down from their posts, and Deputy Commander of Ukraine's Air Force Pavlo Yelizarov submitted a resignation request over the situation, according to Ukrainian media.
The Financial Times reported, citing two people familiar with the situation, that Zelenskyy removed Fedorov after just six months in the post as part of the reshuffle, and was preparing to nominate Klymenko to lead the defense ministry.
According to the FT, defense industry officials, senior Ukrainian officials, lawmakers from Zelenskyy's party and others familiar with the matter said, some publicly, that Fedorov had been seen as an obstacle to interests seeking to profit from Ukraine's wartime defense budget, and had repeatedly blocked attempts to steer procurement contracts toward favored companies, putting him at odds with powerful figures in Ukraine's political and defense establishment.
"He made the mistake of becoming too popular. He also looks highly effective. And to top it off, he decided not to tolerate corruption," Ukrainian investment banker Serhiy Fursa told the FT.
The FT reported that Fedorov's monthslong dispute with Syrskyi centered on disagreements over military strategy and arms procurement, and had grown serious enough that the president had tired of it, according to people familiar with the relationship; Ukraine's General Staff denied reports of any conflict between the two men.
The FT noted Syrskyi remains well-regarded by Zelenskyy despite a poor reputation among some ground troops, who have criticized decisions they say cost lives and earned him the nickname "the butcher."
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