The leader of weeks of protests against Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s sacking of Mykhailo Fedorov as defence minister appeared to call them off after Fedorov demanded elections. The pro-Fedorov movement\u2019s chief \u200corganiser, veteran combat medic Dmytro Koziatynskyi, said he \u201ccannot imagine\u201d how to hold polls with troops at the front and the protests had been about seeking dialogue with the government. Elections are considered impossible and illegal under Ukrainian law because of the war.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m also deeply concerned about the societal divisions during the election process and how that could affect the course of the war,\u201d Koziatynskyi said. \u201cIn any case, street protests are definitely not the place for electoral discourse.\u201d The Reuters news agency said that on Wednesday only a few dozen people remained in a central Kyiv square where thousands once protested. \u201cWhen we came out to protest, we did not come with the idea that elections should be held,\u201d said 22-year-old Iryna Vasyliaka. \u201cThat is \u2060not what we were here for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fedorov\u2019s call for elections appeared to be a clumsy misstep, one opposition lawmaker told Reuters. \u201cThis demonstrates that [Fedorov] doesn\u2019t have a presidential-level feel for the country.\u201d Olena Prokopenko from the German Marshall Fund said Fedorov\u2019s move was a \u201cfalse start\u201d that could burn his political \u200bcapital before elections would realistically be held. \u201cWith this statement, he pretty much played on Ukrainians\u2019 most sensitive pain points.\u201d Ukraine\u2019s parliament this week strongly endorsed Zelenskyy\u2019s new defence minister and Fedorov\u2019s successor, Yevhenii Khmara; but the protests did force Ukraine\u2019s president to replace Oleksandr Syrskyi, the disliked \u201cSoviet-style\u201d head of Ukraine\u2019s military, with a younger military reformer, Mykhailo Drapatyi<\/a>.<\/p>\n A Russian-Australian man has been arrested for allegedly passing information on Ukrainian military activity to Russian intelligence<\/a>. The Australian federal police (AFP) arrested the man, 27, on Thursday night in the Australian city of Brisbane, charging him with attempting to engage in foreign interference. Commissioner Krissy Barrett of the AFP said it was alleged the man travelled to Russia in October 2024 for military-style training before returning to Australia and keeping in contact with \u201cindividuals he believed were connected to Russian intelligence services\u201d. \u201cInvestigators will allege the man then travelled to Ukraine in May 2025, where he joined the Ukrainian armed forces, gaining access to information relating to military personnel, units, and locations.\u201d Information was then passed on to Russia, Barrett said.<\/p>\n Ukraine reeled on Thursday from a heavy Russian missile and drone bombardment that killed at least 16 people in and around Kyiv<\/a> in one of the most intense aerial attacks on Ukraine\u2019s capital since the start of the war. Vitali Klitschko, the city\u2019s mayor, said homes, a school and a children\u2019s medical centre were among the buildings damaged in an attack that began at about midnight and continued throughout the day. Volodymr Zelenskyy urged a global response to the attacks. \u201cWhile Moscow is investing in ballistic missiles and escalation, such strikes do not always receive the response they should. And as long as Ukraine does not have enough anti-ballistic defence, Russia will not consider peace seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n A Romanian F-16 fighter jet on Thursday destroyed an explosives-laden Russian marine drone near an offshore gas project. \u201cI strongly condemn the escalation of such irresponsible incidents on the part of the Russian Federation,\u201d said the Romanian president, Nicu\u0219or Dan. The drone had been \u201cloaded with explosives\u201d and did not originate from Ukraine, said Romania\u2019s defence minister, Radu Miru\u021b\u0103. Hundreds of people are working at the gas project, Neptun Deep, according to Romania\u2019s government. Neptun Deep is due to start production in 2027. Nato has shot down four aerial drones in Romania recently.<\/p>\n Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission chief, slammed the \u201chybrid warfare\u201d campaign by Russia against the EU after the marine drone incident. \u201cAn escalating campaign of threats is under way, unsettling our citizens and seeking to divide our union,\u201d von der Leyen said, warning the EU must step up its defence push to be able to \u201cdeter provocation and aggression\u201d.<\/p>\n Poland on Thursday announced the arrest of a Ukrainian man suspected of an attempt in Kyiv to assassinate a representative of Ukraine\u2019s arms industry on behalf of Russian intelligence services. \u201cThe investigation revealed that Serhii P planted an improvised explosive device under a car used by a potential victim,\u201d said Poland\u2019s internal security agency, the ABW. \u201cThe device was intended to be detonated \u200cremotely using a cellphone. The mechanism did not detonate due to a malfunction.\u201d The suspect fled to Poland where he was arrested in Warsaw. He was charged with attempted murder using explosives and illegal possession of explosives.<\/p>\n Ukraine\u2019s \u2060military hit \u2060Russia\u2019s Taneco \u2060oil refinery \u200bin the Tatarstan \u2060region, as well \u2060as \u200bthe Tamanneftegaz \u200coil terminal \u200cin the \u200cKrasnodar region, the Ukrainian General Staff said on \u200cThursday. The strikes caused fires \u200bat both \u200bsites. Disgruntled motorists in Moscow are sitting for hours in gasoline station queues of up to a kilometres to fill their cars with rationed amounts of fuel, Reuters reported. Videos showed fistfights erupting at the pumps, as Vladimir Putin\u2019s regime reportedly ordered that people who complain about the shortages face fines and arrest<\/a>. \u201cWe have been to five petrol stations already and there was no fuel. \u200cLast week, fuel was available. And now, there is no fuel again,\u201d one Moscow resident told Reuters.<\/p>\n Russia attacked \u2060gas infrastructure in Ukraine\u2019s northern \u2060Chernihiv \u2060region as \u200bwell as a border \u2060crossing with Moldova in the \u2060southern Odesa region, \u200b \u200cVolodymyr Zelenskyy \u200csaid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The leader of weeks of protests against Volodymyr Zelenskyy\u2019s sacking of Mykhailo Fedorov as defence minister appeared to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-744983","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\/744983","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=744983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/744983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/744984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=744983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=744983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=744983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}