The dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov as defense minister sparks protests across Ukraine. Russia launches a sixth ballistic missile attack on Kyiv this month, killing two people. The parliament votes to appoint a new cabinet, except for foreign affairs and defense ministers.
Dismissal of Fedorov as defense minister sparks protests across Ukraine
Ukraine’s parliament accepted on Tuesday the resignation of Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. This means the whole government resigns.
Ukraine’s parliament voted on Thursday to appoint Serhiy Koretskyi as a new prime minister. He was the chairman of the board at Ukraine’s Naftogaz state-owned energy company. The MPs also voted to appoint most of the cabinet’s ministers.
Candidates for the positions of the ministers of defense and foreign affairs are the president’s nominations. They were not part of the Thursday’s voting.
Outgoing Defense Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, writing in English on X on Wednesday said: “It has been a great honor to serve the Ukrainian people as the Minister of Defense.” He also wrapped up his time in office, listing achievements. In a post to Facebook in Ukrainian he also outlined the failures. “[We] launched a new structure, dismissed a lot of [civil servants] and started many processes. We should have been more decisive in dismissing people who blocked the changes,” Fedorov said.
According to Ukrainian news site Ukrainska Pravda, citing unnamed sources, and MP of the Golos (Voice) party Yaroslav Zheleznyak, at a meeting of the Servant of the People (Sluha Narodu) faction on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi said he decided to replace Fedorov because of his conflict with Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Oleksandr Syrskyi. Yet it was visible that “dismissing Fedorov was an extremely difficult step for him,” Ukrainska Pravda said. He said he “can no longer be choosing between Syrskyi and Fedorov,” Zheleznyak said. Zelenskyi also said Fedorov had failed to reform territorial military recruitment centers, he added.
The Economist said on Monday that Mykhailo Fedorov was trying to reform the army, while the generals were pushing back despite his successes in drone development and the army’s digitalization.
Hundreds of people rallied in support of Fedorov close to the president’s office in Kyiv on Thursday. Similar rallies took place in other cities across the country.
Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, Fedorov who has been part of the government team for seven years said Zelenskyi had not yet taken Syrskyi’s side and the situation can be improved. He also said he had a conversation with Zelenskyi and does not consider their disagreement to be a conflict.
Fedorov said he and Zelenskyi have long worked as a team and have “never failed each other.” Yet each of them now has their own view of the situation.
Fedorov said Zelenskyi’s decision to remove him followed complaints about the defense ministry by a large number of people.
“When 90 per cent of people who have had problems after our work in the Ministry of Defense come to him, it is difficult for him as a manager to analyze all this and make right decisions,” he said.
Fedorov also said he believes Zelenskyi can still reverse his decision to remove him from office.
“We always make the right decision after we have made all the wrong ones. That’s why I am convinced that the president hears the Ukrainian people, knows what to do and the situation will be 100 per cent corrected,” he said.
Speaking at a news conference alongside outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Kyiv on Thursday, Zelenskyi responded to the rallies taking place across the country in support of Fedorov.
“We are fighting for freedom and democracy. People are doing what they want. They wanted to rally — and they were right to do so. I understand, hear and respond to what the public says,” Zelenskyi said.
He added that Fedorov will stay in his team, and “we will discuss a little bit later in which capacity.”
Russia launches sixth ballistic missile attack on Kyiv this month, killing two
Russia carried out a ballistic missile strike on Kyiv overnight on Thursday. Two people were killed and six others, including a 16-year-old boy, were injured. A series of loud explosions rocked the city. The missile debris fell in the Darnytskyi and Svyatoshynskyi districts of the capital.
It was the sixth ballistic missile attack on Kyiv in July alone. The previous strikes happened on July 2, 6, 8, 11 and July 14.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said a fire broke out in two storage buildings and nearby parked trucks in the Darnytskyi district, where the two people were killed. In the Svyatoshynskyi district, a fire broke out in a one-story warehouse.
Parliament votes to appoint new cabinet, except for foreign affairs and defense ministers
The Ukrainian Parliament voted to appoint a new prime minister and most of his cabinet on Thursday. Serhiy Koretskyi previously served as chairman of the board at the Naftogaz state-owned energy company.
Candidates for the positions of the ministers of defense and foreign affairs are the president’s nominations. They were not part of the Thursday’s voting.
Some of the ministers from the previous cabinet stay in office. The ministers in the new government are:
- Denys Shmyhal, First Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Energy;
- Tetyana Berezhna, Vice Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture;
- Vsevolod Chentsov, Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration;
- Vitaliy Bezgin, Minister for Communities, Territories and Internally Displaced Persons;
- Matviy Bidnyi, Minister of Youth and Sports;
- Andriy Butenko, Minister of Education and Science;
- Ivan Vyhivskyi, Minister of Internal Affairs;
- Taras Vysotskyi, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food;
- Mykola Kalashnyk, Minister of Restoration, Infrastructure and Transport;
- Vitaliy Kim, Minister of Veterans’ Affairs;
- Oleksandr Kravchenko, Minister of Economy and Environment;
- Viktor Lyashko, Minister of Healthcare;
- Serhiy Marchenko, Minister of Finance;
- Denys Maslov, Minister of Justice;
- Denys Ulyutin, Minister of Social Policy, Family and Unity;
- Oksana Ferchuk, Minister of Digital Transformation.
