'Utterly baffling': Ukrainians outraged, call for protest after Zelensky ousts Fedorov

This is a developing story and is being updated.

President Volodymyr Zelensky's dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov as defense minister has drawn a wave of criticism from soldiers, veterans, and civil society figures, who argue Ukraine is losing one of its most effective wartime officials without an adequate explanation.

Dmytro Koziatynskyi, a war veteran who was a leading organizer of last summer's mass protests against a law curbing the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies, called for a new demonstration.

"The defense minister is being removed in the middle of effective — finally effective! — reforms, replaced by someone under whom any hope of reform can be forgotten," he wrote on Facebook.

He urged Ukrainians to gather at Ivan Franka Square at 9:01 a.m. — after Ukraine's daily minute of silence to honor fallen soldiers and civilians killed in the war — to protest what he called a pattern of "replacing effective ministers with convenient yes-men," adding: "We will never defeat Russia as long as the same total stagnation and corruption rule our army and our ministries."

Soldiers and defense experts fear reforms will stall

Pavlo Kazarin, a sergeant with the 104th Territorial Defense Brigade, called the decision "utterly baffling," noting that every change in the ministry's leadership has brought policymaking to a standstill for weeks or longer. Fedorov is the third person to hold the post in the past year.

"If there had been complaints about Fedorov's work and the ministry's effectiveness during his tenure, this reshuffle would have been understandable," Kazarin told the Kyiv Independent. "But there weren't any."

He credited Fedorov's tenure with cutting off Russian forces' access to Starlink and warned that his removal would be seen as proof that "conservatism" and "the absence of reforms" are the surest way for officials to stay in power.

The dismissal also prompted Serhii Sternenko, a prominent Ukrainian activist and blogger who was appointed as Fedorov's adviser on drone warfare in January, to announce he is stepping down from that role.

"Mykhailo Fedorov is the best Minister of Defense in our entire history," he wrote, thanking him for his "leadership and service." He pointed to unifying ground control stations for fiber-optic drones and raising individual brigades' rankings as concrete gains under Fedorov, even as "bureaucratic obstacles" blocked other reforms. "It is a shame," he added, "that today our state has become much further from victory."

Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, another prominent advisor to Fedorov, said he's no longer holding the role, thanking the Defense Minister for his work.

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"It was an honor for me to be part of Fedorov's team. We had so many plans and ideas for the future, but, unfortunately…. I can't talk about my personal challenges or the projects I won't be able to finish now. Someone else will have to continue working on them. The war is still going on," Beskrestnov wrote on Facebook.

Bohdan, an officer in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, offered a more measured take. He said Fedorov's ministry made "certain missteps" under pressure from generals, but called him the only minister "who at least tried to reform the army" with "fresh ideas and sound principles," even if execution fell short — noting that officers had "stifled" his attempts to overhaul army personnel policy.'

He said he was more troubled by reports that Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, who served in Ukraine's national police, could take over the defense ministry. "I personally do not trust the police at all, and I cannot imagine a police officer serving as the defense minister," he said. "I'm afraid it will lead to a decline."

Anatolii Khrapchynskyi, a Ukrainian aviation expert and former Ukrainian Air Force officer, said he was "sorry to see that such a person has been removed" from the ministry, calling Fedorov a rare official with "strategic vision and an agile approach." He pointed to Fedorov's work building the Reserve+ and Army+ digital platforms, and said a procurement audit he launched at the ministry cut prices by "16 to 20%" — a move Khrapchynskyi suggested may have cost him allies.

On reports of a rift with Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, Khrapchynskyi was blunt: "Zelensky removed the best person and left a worse one." He warned the change could hit morale in the ranks: "When a competent minister is appointed who begins implementing reforms, only to be removed after a while, the mood in the trenches changes."

Maria Berlinska, a veteran and co-founder of the Victory Drones initiative, went further, calling the move one of Zelensky's "biggest mistakes."

She said Ukraine's technological deficit against Russia has grown so severe that "ordinary good governance will no longer help," comparing the situation to advanced illness requiring specialist intervention rather than routine treatment.

"The price will be the lives and health of hundreds of thousands of people," she told the Kyiv Independent.

"Hundreds of thousands, if not more."

Daria Kaleniuk, co-founder and executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, said she planned to join the gathering. "Tomorrow I expect to have coffee with like-minded people near the Franko Theatre," she wrote, referencing the site of Koziatynskyi's planned protest.

Kaleniuk criticized the decision, telling the Kyiv Independent that she believes "the entire government resignation was conceived by Zelensky solely to remove Fedorov."

Anton Skop-Bilonizhko, co-founder of the Opora Poruch military fundraising NGO, called the decision "very strange," saying Fedorov had "proven his effectiveness, honesty, and dedication to the Ukrainian people" since joining Zelensky's team in 2019. Removing him now, he said, is "a step backwards from what we have started."

Skop-Bilonizhko said he would join a rally "for Fedorov's reinstatement as Defense Minister" if one takes place — but urged caution. "We must clearly understand the line between our dissatisfaction as citizens and a potential internal coup," he said, warning that protests could unintentionally trigger instability that Russia might exploit.