President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov on 15 July, six months into a tenure that had won broad public and military support for accelerating drone warfare and procurement reform. The decision, confirmed by Fedorov himself, came as parliament approved Serhii Koretskyi, the head of state energy company Naftogaz, to replace Yulia Svyrydenko as prime minister. Within hours, thousands of protesters gathered in central Kyiv and at least ten other cities, chanting “shame” and demanding Fedorov’s reinstatement, while Pavlo Yelizarov, deputy commander of the air force, resigned in solidarity, calling the dismissal “a great evil for the country’s defence capability.”

Zelensky told lawmakers that the move was forced by a systemic breakdown between Fedorov and Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, according to accounts in the Ukrainian press. The president was quoted as saying the two men “live in two different worlds” — Fedorov pushing digitalisation and technology-driven warfare, Syrskyi insisting on traditional combined-arms priorities — and that he could not permit the defence ministry and general staff to “wage war on each other” during a full-scale conflict. Fedorov, in a press briefing, accused Syrskyi of blocking ministry initiatives and of “figuring out how to split the country” rather than defeating Russia, and said he had declined Zelensky’s offer of an advisory role. Syrskyi responded by urging a focus on the war effort and thanking Fedorov for his service.

Viewed from European Union institutions, the dismissal was met with unease. EU Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius described it as a “big surprise” and said the replacement of a minister with whom Brussels had worked closely on a €60 billion defence credit programme raised questions. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the reshuffle had no significance for Russia unless Kyiv was ready for a “responsible decision” leading to peace, while pro-war military bloggers celebrated the removal of a figure they regarded as an unusually effective adversary. Ukrainian civil-society figures and some lawmakers argued that Fedorov had been targeted because his anti-corruption audits and open-tender reforms threatened entrenched interests in the defence-procurement system, a reading also reported by the Financial Times citing officials and industry representatives.

The reshuffle is the second major cabinet overhaul in less than a year and leaves the defence portfolio unfilled after the expected nominee, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, reportedly declined the post. The new prime minister, Koretskyi, is a 48-year-old engineer with no prior political experience who told parliament his government would prioritise defence production, economic stability and European integration. The parliamentary vote on a new defence minister has been postponed, and Zelensky has said Fedorov will remain “in the team” in an unspecified capacity, while protests continue to test the government’s room for manoeuvre at a moment when Ukraine’s long-range strike campaign has shifted the battlefield dynamic but manpower and air-defence shortages persist.