Protests are being held in Ukraine against President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's surprise dismissal of popular Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
A crowd, mostly young people, gathered in the capital Kiev on the morning of Thursday, July 16, chanting "Hands off Fedorov!" and “Stop sabotaging victory!” They carried banners saying "Shame on you!" shouted slogans.
Zelenskiy has not yet explained the rationale for his decision, which has sparked serious reaction from commentators, the military and some segments of civil society.
Fedorov, 35, was appointed to his post in January 2026 but has been praised for bringing dynamism to the ministry, launching a fight against corruption and using data to analyze and improve performance on the front.
MPs are expected to vote today on the proposal to appoint Ihor Klymenko, currently head of the interior ministry, as defense minister.
In addition to those in Ukraine who attribute Fedorov's dismissal to the tensions between him and Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, who adopted a more traditional approach, there are also those who point out his failure to act quickly enough to restructure the mobilization system in the army.
Speaking to the BBC, Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr said, "This is the biggest mistake Zelenskiy has made during his entire presidency."
Stating that he joined the army in early 2026 because he trusted Fedorov's team and vision, Oleksandr said, "I do not know anyone who supports the decision to replace him with someone else. Neither in the army nor in society."
Speaking to the BBC at the protest held in Ivan Franko Square in the center of Kiev, 31-year-old Maria Lavrynets said: "I have many friends in the army. Many of them died. I do not want this to continue."
"We see [Fedorov's] results. We see the motivation of the soldiers, we must stand with them."
When he was appointed, Fedorov set out to restructure the Ministry of Defense, which many in Ukraine saw as overly bureaucratic and tied to old Soviet-era concepts.
Fedorov, a former minister of digital transformation, played an active role in establishing a "Ukrainian Information Technology Army" of volunteers to launch cyber attacks against Russians from the first days of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.
He later spearheaded a successful fundraiser called "UAV Army".
He brought "gamification" elements to war by designing a system that allowed Ukrainian military units to be awarded points for hitting Russian targets.
After Fedorov became defense minister, he continued to focus on UAVs, high-tech warfare methods and procurement.
In the early days of his term, he asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to prevent Russia from using Starlink satellites in UAV attacks.
This step caused significant disruptions in Russia's frontline operations and advances.
His ministry also played a key role in Ukraine's recent attacks on the Moscow-controlled Crimean Peninsula.
In June 2026, Fedorov vowed to completely "separate" Crimea from Russia using medium-range UAV strikes.
In a post on Facebook shortly after his dismissal, Fedorov listed his achievements and said he would continue to "defeat the enemy thanks to our asymmetry, innovation speed and organizational strength."
Famous blogger Serhii Sternenko, whom Fedorov appointed as an advisor, called his former boss "the best defense minister in our history" and lamented "bureaucratic obstacles and artificial delays" that he said stood in the way of deeper reforms.
Successful UAV unit commander Pavlo Yelizarov also resigned from his post as deputy commander of the Ukrainian Air Force in protest of Fedorov's dismissal.
Yelizarov called this step "a great evil for the country's defense capacity."
We used artificial intelligence in the translation of this article, which was originally written in English. A BBC journalist checked the translation before publication. .