Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed Ukraine\u2019s popular defence minister, despite pleas from foreign partners and civil society for him to keep his job, as part of wide-ranging government reshuffle.<\/p>\n
In a post on Telegram Mykhailo Fedorov announced that he was leaving his position, saying it had been a \u201cgreat honour\u201d to serve the Ukrainian people. He was widely credited with transforming the defence ministry and reducing corruption.<\/p>\n
His six months in office coincided with a dramatic improvement in Ukraine\u2019s position on the battlefield. Kyiv has repeatedly hit Russian oil refineries with long-range drones, embarrassing Vladimir Putin and creating nationwide fuel shortages<\/a>.<\/p>\n In his farewell message Fedorov, 35, listed his achievements. They included disabling Starlink for Russian troops and procuring more drones, used to destroy \u201cenemy logistics\u201d and to isolate occupied Crimea. He said he had \u201cradically improved\u201d the procurement system, saving the state budget \u201cbillions of dollars\u201d.<\/p>\n On the day of his departure the minister revealed Ukraine\u2019s military had successfully tested a ballistic missile. \u201cWe fundamentally revised \u2060the technical requirements \u200band achieved maximum \u200baccuracy. \u200bWe reduced \u200bthe \u200ccost \u200bby \u200b30%. Ukraine<\/a> will enter a new league,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n It is unclear if Fedorov will get another cabinet post. On Wednesday Ukraine\u2019s parliament accepted the resignation of prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko<\/a> after Zelenskyy said his government needed a reset. Her replacement is likely to be Serhiy Koretskyi, the head of the energy company Naftogaz.<\/p>\n Fedorov\u2019s removal has outraged his supporters, and comes amid rumours of a feud with Ukraine\u2019s commander in chief Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi <\/a>. Friends of Ukraine, including the former US ambassador in Moscow, Michael McFaul, this week urged Zelenskyy to keep Fedorov in his post.<\/p>\n Serhii Sternenko, an aide to the sacked minister, wrote bitterly: \u201cIt is a pity our country today is significantly further from victory. Real reforms have not even been allowed to begin, although we have still managed to bring about a great deal of change.\u201d He complained of \u201cdeliberate delays\u201d and \u201cbureaucratic obstacles\u201d.<\/p>\n The opposition politician Iryna Gerashchenko condemned the move. Speaking in Ukraine\u2019s parliament before the news was confirmed, she asked: \u201cHow is it that Zelenskyy\u2019s only sensible appointment, Minister Fedorov, is in limbo today?\u201d<\/p>\n Online commentators were scathing. Within minutes of the announcement, thousands posted messages backing Fedorov. One wrote, bluntly: \u201cI don\u2019t understand this decision.\u201d Another added: \u201cA minister who gave hope to millions and showed what can happen when you are interested in the victory of your country.\u201d<\/p>\n The deputy director of the Politika thinktank, Artem Bronzhukov, described the rapid turnover of defence ministers in Ukraine as \u201cabnormal\u201d in a country fighting a large-scale war against an enemy such as Russia. He said Fedorov had visibly improved the situation on the frontline and beyond in \u201cthree or four months\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe results are noticeable in middle strikes, where Ukraine has turned the Crimean peninsula into a virtual island. Against this background, there is a credit of trust in Mykhailo Fedorov. He is supported by our western partners, he is supported by the progressive part of society,\u201d Bronzhukov told Radio NV<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed Ukraine\u2019s popular defence minister, despite pleas from foreign partners and civil society for him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-693727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}