Ukrainians keep Zelensky at bay to reinstate the Minister of Defense

Kramatorsk (Ukraine)In a gloomy basement of a destroyed building in Druzhkivka, a soldier pilots a small drone against a Russian antenna somewhere in Ukrainian Donbas. The pilots take twenty-hour shifts to fight Russian positions sixteen kilometers away, and fatigue does not prevent them from being optimistic about the new army commander-in-chief, Mikhailo Drapati, after his predecessor was sacked this week by President Volodymyr Zelensky, amid the most significant protests the country has experienced since the Maidan revolt in 2014.

The military personnel at the positions cannot be very expressive about the political decisions being made in the presidential office on Bankova Street in Kyiv, but civilians are, especially young people, who in recent days have taken to the streets of Ukraine's cities to demand momentous changes. And they are succeeding. The rallies that began against the dismissal of the Minister of Defense, Mykhailo Fedorov, have caused the fall of the commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Sirski, who had been in office for more than two years. But the protesters' objectives have not yet been met and it seems they will not stop until Fédorov returns to the cabinet.

Ukraine received the news suddenly on July 15. Days before, the rumor had been circulating among Ukrainian media confidential sources that Fedorov would not be renewed within the government restructuring that Zelensky was preparing, but it was just another piece of gossip among the flood of news the population receives daily about the front, civilian casualties, and attacks on Russia or Crimea. It was precisely these latter successes that made people think that Fedorov, the young thirty-five-year-old tech entrepreneur who had taken over the portfolio six months ago, would continue. The cabinet restructuring presented to parliament by Zelensky placed the current director of state energy companies, Serhiy Koretzky, at the head as prime minister to face another harsh winter that is expected to be full of attacks on the country's infrastructure.

The day after the news confirming his dismissal, Fédorov held a tough press conference where he stated that Sirski had given an ultimatum to Zelensky to choose who he wanted to stay with. The outgoing minister explained that the commander-in-chief was boycotting his decisions and obstructing his proposal for a deep reform of the army with accountability for defense acquisitions and new contracts to attract recruits with very clear conditions on rotations, payments, and military service terms.

That same afternoon, while Parliament approved the new ministers without a candidate for Defense and Foreign Affairs, thousands of young people took to the streets to protest Zelensky's decision. The president, pressured by public opinion, appointed the head of the internal security service, Yevhen Khmara, as interim minister in the evening. A day that harms the career of the Ukrainian president, who, moreover, experienced this commotion during the institutional visit of the British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.

Sirski responded to the crisis condescendingly via Telegram, recalling that the defense of the capital, which he commanded at the beginning of the invasion on February 24, 2022, allowed for such events in Kyiv, like press conferences or demonstrations. These statements were not well received by certain sectors, as the defense of the country's center of power was not only an effort by the army but also by groups of armed volunteers and new recruits who rushed in en masse to stop the advance of the Russians. Days later, Zelensky made the decision to relieve the commander-in-chief and replace him with Drapati, a commander with a good reputation within the army. Sirski, of Russian origin, trained at the Moscow military school and popularly known for his toughness as "the butcher," departed after more than two and a half years at the head of the supreme command.

The frenzy does not stop

All this power play has not stopped the youth, who are still clamoring for Fédorov's return. He himself has publicly stated that he has rejected Zelensky's offers to return as Deputy Prime Minister for Military Innovation, and that he will only do so if he is offered the defense portfolio again. One of the organizers of the protests, veteran Dmytro Koziatynskyi, has publicly stated that the demonstrators will maintain an "indefinite protest" until Fédorov returns.

Ukraine has shown in recent days that despite the attrition of war and losses, it has not run out of a voice to demand the right to a modern army, respect for the military, and a clear strategy for victory. "This public response shows that the country remains politically alive and that those in power cannot yet force us to accept any decision with impunity," writes Iryna Sergeeva, a professor at the NATO School and a veteran of the Ukrainian army in the media Ukrainska Pravda. "After this story, Fédorov has every chance of reaching the presidency. He only lacks one thing, and Sirski, unintentionally, pointed out this deficiency by mocking the term vision," he adds. Fédorov has shown, first as Minister of Digital Transformation and then as Head of Defense, that he has been able to adapt Ukrainian society to the technological demands of the future. Not a few think that if he learns to translate all this into a language understandable to the older electorate, he will achieve precisely the votes he needs to achieve a possible presidency.