Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Kyiv on Thursday after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy moved to dismiss his defence minister, as parliament appointed a new prime minister as part of a major government reshuffle.
The shake-up could become a test of Zelenskyy’s political authority as Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s full-scale attack approaches 4½ years.
Ukraine’s parliament approved Serhii Koretskyi, the head of state energy company Naftogaz, as the country’s new prime minister.
Zelenskyy nominated Koretskyi, citing his record in the energy sector and arguing that he was best placed to help prepare Ukraine for another wartime winter. He was voted in with 289 votes in favor.
Outgoing Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, 35, is considered to be a moderniser whose technological expertise is credited in part with a significant improvement in Ukraine’s military performance in recent months against Russia’s bigger army.
He was expected to leave the government after just six months in the post.
Zelenskyy didn’t publicly give a reason for Fedorov’s anticipated exit. Unconfirmed Ukrainian media reports said that Fedorov had a strained relationship with Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces.
Syrskyi, 60, is credited with initially organizing the defence of Kyiv in February 2022, and seven months later masterminded a successful counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region.
He was born in 1965 in the Soviet Union and attended Moscow Higher Military Command School before serving in the Soviet Artillery Corps.
The mostly young protesters shouted Fedorov’s name and made crude remarks about Skryskyi. They chanted, “Syrskyy go away!” and “A European army for a European country!”
Bohdan Huryak, a Kyiv resident at the protest, said that he was “deeply outraged” by Fedorov’s exit.
“I’m not deeply invested in the internal political debates, but this is a person who shows results on the battlefield, we see results, we feel the fighting spirit and confidence in victory rising,” Huryak told AP.
“And then, six months later, he is removed from office? Come on.”
Demonstrations were also held in other cities across Ukraine, including Dnipro in the center of the country and the southern port city of Odesa.
Zelenskyy swiftly reversed course in July last year when large street protests broke out over a new law that would have curbed the independence of the country’s anti-corruption watchdogs.
The outcry threatened the stability of his leadership for the first time since Russia’s all-out attack, which began on Feb. 24, 2022.
