This week, fighting continued to rage along the front lines. Ukraine proceeded with its deep strike campaign against war-related targets inside Russia. The week also marked a rebooting of the government. The removal from office of defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov that happened as part of the reshuffle triggered protests across the country.
Russia was forced to move its oil tankers to the Black Sea after dozens of its vessels were targeted by Ukrainian drones last week, Ukrainian news site Defense Express said on Monday. Some 350 drones attacked Moscow and the wider region overnight on Monday, causing destruction in Solnechnogorsk. Ukrainian drones travelled 1,500 kilometers overnight on Tuesday to hit the last untouched large oil refinery in Russia. The facility in question is the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil processing plant in the republic of Bashkortostan.
Russia continued to pummel Ukraine’s rear areas with missiles and drones. Russian mid-week attacks on the cities of Sumy and Odesa, and on the regions of Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia killed eight people. A ballistic missile strike on Kyiv overnight on Thursday killed two people and ignited fires in two neighborhoods. The Ukrainian air defenses shot down three of the eight ballistic missiles apparently used against the capital overnight.
Ukraine and the EU have agreed a defense industrial partnership, or a “drone deal,” as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen referred to it, speaking at a ceremony to mark Ukraine’s Statehood Day in Kyiv on Wednesday. President Donald Trump will support the passage of a bipartisan Russia sanctions package that was spearheaded by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, a White House official told CNN on Monday. At the same time, Graham’s sanctions bill on Russia was softened after the talks with the White House, Reuters said on Tuesday.
The parliament appointed a new government on Thursday. The ministers of defense and foreign affairs, who are the president’s nominations, will be voted separately. Protests against the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov as defense minister continued on Friday.
Zelenskyi tasks acting head of security service, Yevheniy Khmara to serve as acting defense minister.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said on Thursday that he will ask the parliament to appoint acting head of Ukraine’s Security Service, Major General Yevheniy Khmara as defense minister. Until then, Khmara will serve as acting defense minister.
“I have tasked Yevhenii Khmara with serving as acting minister, continuing to reform the defense sector, and ensuring that Ukraine achieves all of the results we have discussed. Once the necessary legal procedures have been completed, I will request that MPs support Yevhenii Khmara’s nomination for the position of Minister of Defense of Ukraine,” Zelenskyi said, writing in English on X.
In a message that he said came after their meeting, Zelenskyi said the two shared “a strategic vision for Ukraine’s ongoing active efforts to defend our independence and force Russia into diplomacy.”
“Yevhenii Khmara has gained extensive and, in many respects, unprecedented experience with technological combat operations. This is exactly where our defense efforts should be focused during this war,” he added.
There was no mention of former Minister of Interior Ihor Klymenko whom Zelenskyi was earlier set to propose as defense minister or outgoing minister Mykhailo Fedorov whose reinstatement was demanded by protests.
Ukrainian law requires the defense minister to be a civilian.
The parliament’s next plenary session will begin on August 18.