Protesters filled the streets of several Ukrainian cities on Thursday after President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, a rare sight in wartime. They chanted “Shame!” and demanded he be reinstated.
Fedorov had held the job for six months. The firing came as part of a major cabinet reshuffle. Zelensky has not publicly given a reason and had not named a successor, according to Mint.
Fedorov confirmed his departure on X and posted a list of what his team had achieved. “I will continue to work toward the mission I originally brought to the Ministry of Defence: defeating the enemy through asymmetry, the speed of innovation, and the power of organisation,” he wrote.
The feud with the commander-in-chief
Reports tie the dismissal to a clash with Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, who commands Ukraine’s armed forces. Fedorov accused Syrskyi of blocking needed military reforms. Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, as quoted by AFP, he went further: “Instead of figuring out how to defeat Russia asymmetrically — which is the commander-in-chief’s task — he figured out how to split the country we’re all living in today.”
Mint reported that his technology-first approach had already set him against senior officers, who maintained that infantry remained indispensable.
Who he is
Fedorov was 28 when he joined Zelensky’s first cabinet as minister for digital transformation, a new post that let him push technology-driven reforms. In January 2026 he moved up to defence minister.
He became the youthful face of Ukraine’s drone program and is often called the “champion of drones.” His best-known project is the “Army of Drones” crowdfunding initiative, which got drones to the front line while bypassing the usual channels. As defence minister he also introduced a program that let soldiers buy weapons directly through a website nicknamed the “Amazon of weapons.” Defence contractors were upset by it.
His record also reaches back to the first days of the full-scale invasion in 2022, when he urged Elon Musk to switch on SpaceX’s Starlink service in Ukraine. Tens of thousands of Starlink terminals have since been deployed by the military, often described as the lifeblood of its battlefield communications. Fedorov is also reportedly credited with working with Starlink to block unauthorised Russian access to the service.
Mint noted that his removal raises questions about whether Ukraine will keep putting innovation first in a fight against a much larger Russian military.
