Ukraine’s parliament on Thursday approved the country’s energy executive Serhii Koretskyi as the new prime minister. The appointment came even as hundreds of protesters descended on central Kyiv carrying signs reading “Bring Back Fedorov” and “Do Not Destroy Defence Capability,” in a rare and stinging public rebuke of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to abruptly oust the now former Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov after only six months in the post.
Koretskyi, 48 and the former chief executive of Ukraine’s state energy company Naftogaz, was voted in with 289 votes in favour in the Verkhovna Rada, a comfortable margin, but one that did nothing to quiet the anger outside the building’s walls.
The appointment makes him the third prime minister Ukraine has had since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, and comes as part of the second major cabinet reshuffle Zelensky has ordered in a year, a scale of political turbulence that critics say is becoming a liability in itself.
“Ukraine is changing its political strategy. Each priority area of foreign policy will be assigned to a specific person with substantial experience who is capable of implementing what we agree on at the leaders’ level and what the Ukrainian people expect,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X, offering his most comprehensive public explanation yet of the reshuffle’s purpose.
‘A Great Evil’: Why Fedorov’s Removal Has Shaken Ukraine
The figure at the centre of Thursday’s protests is not Koretskyi but the man he indirectly replaced as the government’s most prominent face on the war’s technological front. Mykhailo Fedorov, 35 years old and Ukraine’s youngest-ever cabinet minister, built a reputation as the architect of the country’s drone warfare revolution, overseeing the development and mass production of the Sea Baby unmanned surface vessels that have devastated Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and shadow fleet, and driving the systematic integration of artificial intelligence into Ukraine’s battlefield targeting and logistics systems.
The deputy commander of Ukraine’s air force, Pavlo Yelizarov, resigned in protest at Fedorov’s removal, calling it “a great evil” for Ukraine’s defence. “It is a great honour for me to work with Mykhailo Fedorov. In 2022, I joined the defence forces to win, not to pretend to be doing something,” he said in his resignation statement.
Something that would not be allowed in Russia: Ukrainians are protesting over a decision made by their president pic.twitter.com/DJiGsXkGG6
— Joni Askola (@joni_askola) July 16, 2026
Fedorov himself confirmed his dismissal in a series of social media posts late Wednesday, in which he listed his achievements in office. He later said Thursday that he had declined an offer from Zelensky to become his adviser, a rejection that itself carried a pointed message about the scale of his unhappiness with how the transition had been handled.
Only appointed six months ago, Fedorov carved a reputation as a moderniser who tried to reform the Ukrainian military, worn down by more than four years of the Russian invasion. His removal risks throwing uncertainty into the army at a time when Ukraine is in one of its best positions in the war for months, having halted the pace of the Russian advance and pounding Russian oil and military sites with long-range drones.
Ukrainians rally against Zelenskyy’s firing of Fedorov across Ukraine
Cardboard-sign protests against the dismissal of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov broke out in Kyiv and at least 16 other cities on the morning of 16 July, timed to the parliament se… pic.twitter.com/Ca0wQsidRY
— GMan | GMan’s Chronicle (@FAB87F) July 16, 2026
Protesters in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa and Dnipro Revolt Against Zelensky’s Decision
The public reaction to the reshuffle has been striking both in its geographic breadth and in the personal tone of its anger. Hundreds gathered outside the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv on Thursday morning, with demonstrators carrying handmade signs in Ukrainian and English.
One placard read “Fedorov is a Minister of Innovation.” Another read simply “Power Is the People.” Others demanded that Zelensky reverse his decision before the parliamentary session concluded.
Local media reported protests in several other cities, including Lviv, Odesa and Dnipro. In Kyiv, Vlada Roman, a 30-year-old business owner, told AFP she believed Zelensky had made a profound political error.
“I believe that his dismissal is a slap in the face of the Ukrainian people,” she said. She added that she hoped Zelensky would row back on the decision, saying he was “afraid of effective people.”
❗️“I understand, I hear, and I respond to what society is saying. We are fighting for freedom and democracy. People are doing what they want. They wanted to come out — and they were right to do so,” — Zelenskyy on today’s protests. pic.twitter.com/7gdGoHWUKn
— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@front_ukrainian) July 16, 2026
Why Zelensky Made the Move and What the Reshuffle Really Reflects
Zelensky has offered two official justifications for the cabinet overhaul. The first is logistical: he has said Koretskyi is best placed to lead the country through another winter of relentless Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid, citing the Naftogaz chief’s specific experience in managing the country’s energy infrastructure under wartime conditions.
The second is strategic: Zelensky said the reshuffle was designed to ensure each “priority area of foreign policy” was handled by someone with the direct expertise to deliver results at the diplomatic level.
Unconfirmed Ukrainian media reports said that Fedorov had a strained relationship with Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, a friction that, if accurate, would suggest the dismissal had as much to do with internal military-civilian tension as with any policy disagreement.
Zelensky did not formally announce Fedorov’s departure and gave no public explanation for the timing, a silence that has only deepened the sense among critics that the decision was driven by personal politics rather than institutional logic.
Current Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko is set to replace Fedorov as defence minister under the restructured cabinet, a move that rattled faith in Zelensky’s leadership among defence analysts who saw the appointment of a police chief to one of the most technically demanding ministerial posts in the country as evidence that personal loyalty, rather than expertise, was shaping the government’s composition.
Timing That Has Left Analysts Struggling to Explain
The most striking feature of the reshuffle, in the eyes of both domestic and international observers, is its timing. It comes at the precise moment Ukraine appears, by the government’s own account, to be achieving one of its strongest military positions in more than four years of war.
The country’s 40-day influence operation against Russian logistics has struck more than 105 shadow fleet vessels in nine days, halted Kerch Strait shipping, caused fuel shortages across Crimea and driven US President Donald Trump to publicly endorse Ukraine’s deep strike strategy for the first time since his return to the White House.
CBS News’ Aidan Stretch reported that many observers have credited the outgoing cabinet with Ukraine’s recent successes in countering Russia’s assault. Removing the minister most directly associated with those successes, at the moment they were bearing fruit, has struck even some of Zelensky’s traditional supporters as difficult to understand.
“The reshuffle could become a test of Zelenskyy’s political authority as Ukraine’s fight against Russia continues,” CBS News reported, capturing the central risk of a decision that has turned Fedorov’s supporters into a constituency of public discontent at a moment when wartime unity is still the primary currency of Ukrainian political life.
An Energy Focus Heading Into a Difficult Winter
Zelensky’s official rationale, that Koretskyi’s energy expertise is what Ukraine needs most as it heads into another winter, is not without logic. Russia has systematically targeted Ukraine’s power grid for more than two years, leaving millions of households to cope with rolling blackouts during the coldest months.
The previous winter strained Ukraine’s energy system to its limits, and the combination of ongoing strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure and the demands of a wartime economy operating at maximum intensity has left the country’s energy sector chronically underfunded and vulnerable.
Koretskyi’s Naftogaz career has made him one of the few officials in Ukraine with direct operational experience managing the country’s energy reserves, pipelines and import relationships under wartime pressure, credentials that may prove more immediately relevant to civilian welfare over the next six months than the drone production targets and battlefield AI integration that defined Fedorov’s tenure.
