President Volodymyr Zelensky's decision to oust popular Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov after just six months on the job could prove to be his most harmful decision of the war in recent years.
President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 16 dismissed Tymur Tkachenko as head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, according to a decree published on the President's Office website.
On July 10 this year, Russian authorities designated Nadezhdin as a “foreign agent,” effectively preventing him from running in any future elections.
Key developments on July 16: * Ukraine's Omega special forces say drone strike hit Russian Su-24 bomber in occupied Crimea * Rallies in Kyiv, other cities against Defense Minister Fedorov's dismissal * Zelensky says he appoints acting SBU chief Yevhen Khmara acting defense minister * Ukrainian parliament appoints new Cabinet, delays decision on defense minister * Ukrainian parliament appoints Koretskyi as prime minister * UK's Starmer announces $340 million for Gripen jets for Ukraine dur
"It's demoralizing," former soldier Bohdan said as he stood amid thousands of others in Kyiv on July 16 protesting outside the President's Office against the dismissal of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. "People had hope that reforms were coming, that things were finally changing for the better. They were already beginning to happen. Now it feels like everything is going back to the way it was," the 29-year-old told the Kyiv Independent. President Volodymyr Zelensky's decision a day earlier
Khmara previously led the agency's Alpha Special Operations Center, which has played a key role in Ukraine's long-range strike campaign against Russia. He has largely stayed out of the public eye.
The Ukrainian authorities said that a HUR employee had been charged with murdering Anastasia Berezovska, a suspect in the murder attempt on Iermolaiev. The employee has also been investigated as a suspect in the attempted assassination of Iermolaiev, they said.
This is a developing story and is being updated. President Volodymyr Zelensky's dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov as defense minister has drawn a wave of criticism from soldiers, veterans, and civil society figures, who argue Ukraine is losing one of its most effective wartime officials without an adequate explanation. Dmytro Koziatynskyi, a war veteran who was a leading organizer of last summer's mass protests against a law curbing the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption agencies, called fo
