Colonel Pavlo Yelizarov, deputy commander of Ukraine's Air Force, submitted his resignation on Thursday in protest over President Volodymyr Zelensky's dismissal of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, warning that the removal represents a serious blow to the country's defense capability.
"I believe that the removal of M. Fedorov is a great evil for the country's defense capability," Yelizarov wrote in his resignation, which he published on social media. In his formal request, he cited family circumstances as the legal basis for his discharge, while stating plainly that his departure was tied to Fedorov's dismissal, whom he described as the initiator of strategic reforms in Ukraine's air defense system, reforms he warned that blocking would cause significant casualties and destruction amid the ongoing Russian invasion. Yelizarov added that he does not wish to continue serving in the armed forces or its reserves in his specialty.
Zelensky dismissed Fedorov on Wednesday as part of a broader government reshuffle that followed the resignation of Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. Fedorov, who had served only seven months in the role after previously serving as Ukraine's deputy prime minister and minister of digital transformation, confirmed his departure in a farewell social media post, calling it an honor to have served and listing more than twenty accomplishments from his tenure, including the disruption of Starlink access for Russian forces and a campaign targeting Russian logistics in occupied Crimea.
Analysts and Ukrainian officials have pointed to friction between Fedorov and Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi as the underlying cause of the dismissal, with reports indicating that not everyone within the military establishment supported Fedorov's push to overhaul how the Defense Ministry operates. According to Ukrainska Pravda, Zelensky told members of his own party that he would ideally have dismissed both Fedorov and Syrskyi, but felt unable to do so at this time.
The dismissal has triggered rare wartime protests across Ukraine. Demonstrators gathered in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, and Dnipro on Thursday, with more than a thousand people rallying in the capital, waving Ukrainian and EU flags and chanting for Fedorov's reinstatement. Political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko criticized the timing of the change, warning that replacing the defense minister every six months creates further chaos rather than resolving it. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko has reportedly been offered the role, though he has not yet been formally nominated to parliament.
