Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends the National Day of Ukraine ceremony in Kiev on July 15, 2026, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov was abruptly dismissed from his post as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy embarks on the fourth major government reshuffle since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Fedorov, a popular figure and seen as a champion of Ukraine’s drone war, acknowledged his dismissal in a social media post on Wednesday, saying: “It has been a great honor to serve the Ukrainian people.”
Fedorov listed some of the team’s accomplishments during his six-month term, including shutting down the Russian military’s Starlink system, isolating occupied Crimea and “unpopular but very important changes in the military.”
The move prompted calls for peaceful protests in Kiev on Thursday morning, just days after Ukraine’s parliament accepted Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko’s resignation after just a year in office.
Ruslan Stefanchuk, the speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, announced on Wednesday that Serhiy Koretsky, the current CEO of Ukraine’s state-run energy company Naftogaz, has been nominated to be the country’s next prime minister.
Stefanchuk said via Facebook that President Zelensky had nominated Koretsky for the position, and that the Ukrainian president had previously said his government would step up efforts to prepare for the winter and secure a ceasefire as an immediate priority for his government.
“It is no longer possible to tolerate what is happening in our government,” Dmytro Koziatchinsky, a military veteran and a leading organizer of last summer’s nationwide protests, said on social media on Wednesday.
“I call on all kind-hearted citizens to come to Piazza Franco tomorrow at 9:01 a.m. to show the president that they are against the constant reshuffle of the government and the replacement of competent ministers with convenient opportunists,” Koziacinski said on the X program, according to a translation.
Ukraine, which has built up its drone production and capabilities over four years of war, has stepped up attacks on Russian energy infrastructure and military assets, targeting high-profile oil refineries in major cities, as part of an ongoing push to raise the economic costs of the Russian conflict and weaken Russian forces in southern Ukraine.
Defense experts and strategists describe Russia’s drone campaign as critical to stalling Russia’s military momentum, while warning that the successful Kiev barrage greatly increases the risk of escalation.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte (right) and Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov (left) heading to a joint conference in Brussels, Belgium, on February 12, 2026.
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The announcement came as a surprise to many, especially given that the country appears to have turned the tide of the war in recent months, with President Zelensky announcing on Sunday that “Ukraine is changing its political strategy.”
The president said that each foreign policy priority area would be assigned a specific person “with extensive experience in implementing agreements at the leadership level and the expectations of the Ukrainian people.”
