Ukraine’s Fedorov Protests Enter Their Second Month

Ukrainian protestors successful Kyiv connected August 15.

Photo: David Kirichenko

Outside the Ivan Franko Drama Theater, adjacent to Maidan successful Kyiv, protesters gathered for the 31st time of demonstrations connected August 15. Throughout the evening, dozens of young Ukrainians, on pinch immoderate older pensioners, held cardboard signs and chanted toward the adjacent Presidential Office.

“Today is the 31st time the president is not listening to us,” the crowd chanted.

The cardinal issue: the dismissal of Ukraine’s erstwhile defense curate Mykhailo Fedorov. President Volodymyr Zelensky formally dismissed Fedorov connected July 15, citing disputes pinch the erstwhile commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, who himself was dismissed connected July 21.

But for galore of the protesters, Fedorov represented thing larger than a furniture position. At 35, he embodied a caller procreation of leaders that embraced exertion and pushed its take crossed the Ukrainian military.

He was blunt astir Ukraine’s manpower challenges aft taking the defense curate position successful January. Speaking to Ukraine’s parliament aft he was voted in, Fedorov said, “Today you cannot conflict pinch caller technologies utilizing an aged organizational structure. Comprehensive changes are needed.”

His attack sought to usage exertion to compensate for those shortages, lessening the load of mobilization, which remains a sore constituent for Ukrainian society.

That attack besides put him successful opposition pinch Syrskyi, whom critics saw arsenic representing an older procreation of military leadership. Syrskyi made his people pinch the defense of Kyiv, the Kharkiv counteroffensive and the incursion into Kursk. But unpopular decisions, specified arsenic holding onto Bakhmut contempt dense Ukrainian casualties, led to disapproval of his attack to manpower and battlefield losses. He was besides criticized for micromanaging subject operations, which astatine times, did play to his strengths specified arsenic organizing the astonishment Kursk operation.

Across galore cities successful Ukraine, protests person now continued for much than a month. The number of protesters fluctuates, pinch definite days attracting larger crowds. In Kyiv, attendance has ranged from hundreds to thousands, according to reporting by the Kyiv Independent.

But the demonstrations are not only astir Fedorov. Mark Savchuk, a Kyiv resident who fled Mariupol astatine the opening of Russia’s full-scale penetration successful 2022, said Fedorov’s dismissal has go a rally constituent for broader vexation pinch the authorities and repeated unit changes.

“It has to beryllium understood that the main taxable of protests is not Fedorov,” Savchuk told me. “The main point is really that group are tired of authorities reshuffling that Zelensky is doing each year.”

Savchuk said Fedorov’s dismissal became a tipping constituent because he was viewed favorably by galore Ukrainians, while different officials seen arsenic little effective person remained successful their positions. “So this is not ‘because of Fedorov’ per se,” he said. “He is conscionable a manifestation of people’s anger.”

At the evening protest, Yana Kurinska, a Kyiv resident, helped oversee the h2o position and aid halfway for protesters. Nearby, cardboard signs were disposable for group to return and adhd their ain messages.

She told maine group are disappointment by the deficiency of accusation aliases a due mentation from the president for why Fedorov was fired.

“We person a war, we unrecorded successful wartime, and it was a very vulnerable decision,” Kurinska said. “He was astir apt the astir effective personification successful that position if we comparison him pinch the different ministers we person had during wartime. His strategy is good. He was astir apt the only 1 who had a strategy.”

Kurinska added: “One of his astir important ideas, and the thought we support, is that we request to conflict pinch drones, not pinch people. It’s a technological war, you know, and we want to prevention the lives of our soldiers.”

That statement helps explicate why Fedorov’s dismissal has resonated pinch younger Ukrainians. For them, the statement complete the erstwhile defense curate is besides astir really Ukraine should conflict a larger force while preserving its astir constricted resource: its people.

Natalie Litovshikova, primitively from Mykolaiv but now surviving successful Kyiv, told maine she has attended each time of the protests.

“I haven’t missed a azygous day,” she said.

Even erstwhile she went connected picnic to her hometown of Mykolaiv, she joined the protests there. “Activists successful Mykolaiv signed a Mykolaiv emblem for me, and now I’ll protestation present pinch their words arsenic well,” Litovshikova said.

“We want an effective defense because we simply cannot spend to beryllium ineffective successful a warfare against an tremendous force for illustration Russia.”

Litovshikova added: “We cannot suffer group astatine the aforesaid complaint arsenic Russia does aliases person the aforesaid level of corruption arsenic Russia. We person to beryllium 3 steps up of them. Only a modern Minister of Defense tin springiness america that opportunity.”

Even arsenic a young democracy, Ukraine has a rich | history of protests, from the Orange Revolution successful 2004 to the Revolution of Dignity successful 2013. Even during wartime, nationalist demonstrations person pressured the authorities to alteration course. When Zelensky signed authorities successful the summertime of 2025 targeting the independency of Ukraine’s 2 superior anti-corruption bodies, it triggered a activity of protests, starring the authorities to reverse course.

Douglas Davis, co-founder of the Ukrainian Alliance for Medical Exchange and Development (UA-MED), who attended the rally, said he was concerned astir the contention surrounding Fedorov’s dismissal, peculiarly fixed the relationships Fedorov had developed pinch Western partners, including Elon Musk. But he was besides struck by the demonstrations themselves.

“As an American, seeing Ukrainians, young and old, peacefully expressing their will nether martial law, including amid Russian Shahed strikes, is inspiring,” Davis told me. “The serene and thoughtful measurement they are exercising populist present is being repeated crossed the country.”

With Russia’s ongoing penetration showing fewer signs of ending soon, and galore Ukrainians, including the country’s youth, understand that the warfare could past for years. Ukraine cannot lucifer Russia’s organization aliases resources, and for those protesting Fedorov’s dismissal, exertion is 1 measurement to constrictive that imbalance while preserving the soldiers Ukraine cannot spend to lose.

“I conscionable cognize that each time I person immoderate small ngo that needs to beryllium completed,” Kurinska said. “I person immoderate dream that we’ll yet beryllium free.”