Zelenskyy’s crisis deepens as ex-defence minister rejects offer to return

Ukrainian president under pressure to replace commander-in-chief who clashed with Mykhailo Fedorov

Volodymyr Zelenskyy was facing a deepening crisis over military leadership on Monday after a popular former defence minister whom he had sacked turned down an offer to return to government, intensifying a stand-off with protesters.

The Ukrainian president proposed over the weekend to bring back Mykhailo Fedorov with an expanded mandate, according to people familiar with the matter, days after Fedorov’s removal sparked an uproar. A senior Ukrainian official and two other people familiar said that Fedorov wanted only to return to the defence ministry.

Beyond the calls to bring back Fedorov, Zelenskyy is under pressure to appoint a younger generation of military leaders to replace his controversial top general, Oleksandr Syrsky, who had clashed with Fedorov over how Ukraine should fight the war.

“Leaving Syrsky in place now would mean not only ignoring the will of society but also demoralising the army,” Dmytro Koziatynskyi, a military veteran and an organiser of the protests, wrote on X, threatening an ‘‘indefinite’’ protest unless Syrsky was removed this week. “The general must go.”

Protests in support of Fedorov in Kyiv that began on Thursday have since grown to at least 16 cities. Demonstrators have expanded their demands to argue that Ukraine needs to adopt the new approach to the war that Fedorov’s innovations had spawned, as the conflict with Russia enters a critical phase more than four years after it began.

Zelenskyy spent the past four days in meetings with military commanders and political advisers as he sought to find a way through the crisis.

The Ukrainian president had offered Fedorov a senior role within Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council with direct access to the president and a mandate to oversee defence innovation and military reform, according to people familiar with the situation.

Under the arrangement offered, Fedorov would have overseen defence technology programmes and efforts to scale production of long-range weapons, the people said, allowing him to continue pushing reforms outside the defence ministry and military command. He would also have worked to attract foreign investment into Ukraine’s defence industry.

Fedorov did not respond to a request for comment.

The president met Fedorov for roughly six hours over the weekend and has been in contact with him almost daily since his sacking on Thursday, according to people briefed on the matter. Zelenskyy offered Fedorov several alternative positions to his past defence minister role, but he has declined them, those people said.

“He has a lot of leverage right now,” said a person familiar with the discussions between Fedorov and Zelenskyy. “He wants one thing: to be restored [as minister of defence]. And he knows he has most of society on his side.”

The situation with Fedorov has compounded the related dilemma facing Zelenskyy over the future of his top general, Syrsky. Changing the military leadership risks disrupting an institution central to Ukraine’s defence amid Russia’s escalating air strikes. But resisting calls for change could further alienate a public with a long record of forcing its political leadership to reverse course through mass mobilisation.

Moreover, Syrsky has been a close ally of Zelenskyy and has at times closely co-ordinated military plans according to the desires of the president, said people with knowledge of the relationship.

“It is important to assess our further strategy . . . and how to force Russia to end this war with a worthy peace for Ukraine and guaranteed security,” Zelenskyy said on Sunday, suggesting a change at the top may be imminent.

Among the military leaders he met over the weekend were Mykhailo Drapatyi, commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Volodymyr Horbatiuk, deputy chief of the General Staff, and Oleh Apostol, commander of the Air Assault Forces. All are among the contenders to take over the job of commander-in-chief, according to people familiar with the matter.

Several senior Ukrainian officials and people close to the military said there appeared to be growing momentum behind promoting younger officers whose careers were shaped by Russia’s war against Ukraine rather than the Soviet military tradition.

Supporters argue that those commanders are more attuned to the new realities reshaping the war, including the rapid expansion of drone warfare, decentralised decision-making and the need for faster adaptation at the front.

Western partners have urged the president to settle the matters around the military as quickly as possible.

“We are your main financier and we need stability,” a western official supportive of Kyiv said. “We need people we know and trust and can work [in place].”