Kyiv, Ukraine – Ukraine’s sacked defence minister has dumbfounded his wartime nation’s political establishment – again. Mykhailo Fedorov, a 35-year-old technocrat with no military experience, won praise for his unorthodox, out-of-the-box steps during his short stint that began in January. He was not in charge of the actual warfare but was responsible for logistics, technological innovations, anticorruption measures and talks to secure aid or loans from Western allies.
Fedorov’s achievements included the orchestration of daring cyberattacks and a months-long campaign of drone and missile strikes that destroyed Russian supply lines, oil refineries and warehouses storing dual-purpose items. But Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president and Fedorov’s mentor, dismissed him in July following the defence minister’s deepening falling-out with top general Oleksandr Syrskii. Since he was fired, Fedorov has repeatedly emphasised his loyalty to Zelenskyy and refused to accept other jobs such as a presidential aide in charge of reforms.
He also claimed to have turned down a project with Palantir Technologies, a controversial, US-based software company that began collaborating with Ukraine’s military during Fedorov’s tenure. But on Tuesday night, Fedorov urged his former boss Zelenskyy to conduct a presidential election. Democracy can’t be Russia’s hostage,” he said.
Former foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba reportedly backed Fedorov’s idea, saying on Tuesday that elections “after war will not be more civilised, than during it.” “We don’t know when [the war] ends. What if it lasts for another three years? We will be living under the political model that was formed in 2019, which has already been emotionally exhausted,” Kuleba, who helmed the Foreign Ministry in 2020-2024, was quoted by the Interfax Ukraine news agency as saying.
Fedorov is Ukraine’s second-most-trusted potential president. Two-thirds, or 66 percent, of Ukrainians trust Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s former top general who currently serves as an ambassador in London, a poll conducted in late July by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology indicated. Fedorov lags slightly behind with 63 percent, while Zelenskyy came fourth with 56 percent, according to the poll.
Some Ukrainians believe Fedorov could become a better president than Zelenskyy, a former comedian and first-time politician who came to power in 2019 on an anticorruption ticket but has since faced corruption scandals involving his key allies. He has already changed the way we’re dealing with bureaucracy,” Tetiana Baybachenko, a 35-year-old barista in eastern Kyiv, told Al Jazeera. She was referring to Diia, an app to handle dozens of bureaucratic procedures from getting registered in an apartment to selling a car, that Fedorov introduced during his 2019-2026 service as Ukraine’s digital transformation minister.
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