More than 1,000 protesters gathered outside the presidential office in Kyiv on Thursday, carrying placards that read “For what?” and “Is your head screwed on?” as chants of “Syrskyi out” rang through the air. The anger was directed at President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s decision to dismiss the country’s popular defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, a 35-year-old tech prodigy widely seen as a reformist and moderniser.
Speaking at a press conference alongside the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, Zelenskyy defended the move, confirming reports of a breakdown between the defence ministry and the country’s top army leadership. “I would very much like to see unity. The sides have not found it,” he said. “But things are as they are. And in such a situation, you have a choice: either one side or the other.”
“Zelenskyy defends sacking popular defence minister Fedorov after clash with top general, sparking protests in Kyiv.”
The feud between Fedorov and the armed forces commander in chief, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, had spilled into public view. “They even refused to sit at the same table without me,” Zelenskyy added. “I had to make a choice.”
That choice – to back Syrskyi and sack Fedorov – has outraged civil society and dismayed Ukraine’s foreign partners. It was only the second time since Vladimir Putin’s 2022 invasion that large numbers of people have taken to the streets in anti-government protests.
Fedorov himself said Syrskyi had forced Zelenskyy’s hand. “He was not ready to openly discuss problems, but was instead plotting against us and finally set an ultimatum for me to be out,” Fedorov told reporters in Kyiv. “Instead of figuring out how to asymmetrically defeat Russia, which is the task of the commander-in-chief, he figured out how to split the country.”
Zelenskyy has appointed acting SBU intelligence chief Yevhenii Khmara as acting defence minister and asked parliament to approve him in the position. Khmara will serve only until he can formally resign from the military to take up the civilian role.
The growing domestic political crisis overshadowed Starmer’s farewell visit to Kyiv ahead of his departure from Downing Street on Monday. At a joint press conference, Zelenskyy awarded him the Order of Freedom, Ukraine’s highest foreign honour. Starmer, who appeared close to tears, gave Zelenskyy a framed Ukrainian flag that had hung above Downing Street in February 2022 as Russian tanks rolled towards Kyiv. “The support of the United Kingdom for this course will never change,” Starmer said. “It is in our bones.”
But with the wartime initiative against Russia at stake, the question now is whether Zelenskyy’s choice will heal a split in his top team – or deepen it.