UKRAINE, KHARKIV — “Fedorov is the Minister of Defense,” “Corruption kills,” “Syrskyi is a torturer and a killer.” If you stood close enough to the crowd at the southern corner of Kharkiv’s Freedom Square, you wouldn’t hear anything besides the protesters’ chanting. Here, on Jul. 18, the third day of country-wide demonstrations against Zelenskyy’s dismissal of ex-defense minister Fedorov, even frequent air raid alarms get drowned out by 400 voices. The next day, there were more of these voices.
Gwara’s journalists have been covering the protests during all four days. This article summarizes what protesters were talking about — and demanding.
Groundless decision-making
On the morning of Jul. 16, after Zelenskyy and Fedorov confirmed the latter’s removal from his role in the ‘reshuffled’ government, we’ve seen people dropping their plans to come to the morning demonstration. About 200 people gathered in the center of the city.
Varvara, a manager of an IT company, having rescheduled her breakfast plans with her friend to participate in the protest, told Gwara she’s most concerned not about Fedorov’s dismissal per se, but about ‘groundless decision-making’ Zelenskyy is doing.
“Reshuffles like this only make things worse,” she said. “And they happen because (the authorities) don’t like someone or when someone gains a too high approval rating (among people in Ukraine).”
“As a citizen of Ukraine and a resident of Kharkiv, for the first time in long years of Russia’s war, I saw hope,” another protester said about Fedorov’s tenure in the Cabinet of Ministers. “I saw effective, decisive actions. This inspired me deeply, and inspired the soldiers we’re helping.”
‘Oust Syrskyi’
On the day of the briefing on the 16th, Fedorov confirmed that the reason behind his dismissal was his conflict with Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi — something that Ukrainian media have already talked about, based on their sources.
Many protesters, then, began to demand not only the reappointment of Fedorov to his previous post, but also the dismissal of Syrskyi from his.
If, at the first demonstration in Kharkiv, people shouted, “Misha works, Soviet Union panics,” referring to inefficiency of Syrskyi’s conservative approach to war tactics and strategy, on Jul. 18, they were calling Syrskyi a torturer, made jokes like “every cheese has its mouse” on their placards (‘Syr’ in Syrskyi’s name can also mean the word “cheese” in Ukrainian), and chanted “Oust Syrskyi.”
After the first protests, Serhii Sternenko, a volunteer and former advisor to Fedorov, said that more and more soldiers talk about ‘pressure from Syrskyi’ in the aftermath of them talking publicly about the situation. One soldier, who was describing Fedorov’s dismissal as a “kick in our balls” and calling Syrskyi “butcher,” wrote, “I’m so fucking surprised. For the first time in a long time, I got threatened and blackmailed. I know what prompted this.”
The General Staff of the Armed Forces posted that the claims about Syrskyi or the General Staff forbidding service members from public speaking and interviews are “not true,” and the existing orders on restricting media communication were related only to “spreading information about operative situations on the battlefield.”
Silencing of military
Only one of the four acting soldiers we’ve spoken to about Zelenskyy ousting Fedorov on Jul. 16 agreed to share his name, out of fear of repercussions from the command. None of the four agreed for us to share details about the unit they’re serving in. Many participants at the protests were holding signs reading, “Speaking for those who can’t.”
Here’s what Vladyslav, a defense industry worker Gwara spoke to at the demonstration on the 18th, thought of the reasons for people’s outrage with Syrskyi:
“Under Syrskyi, the army has become some sort of criminal group, with torture, like in the Skelia (a regiment that was recently investigated by Babel’s journalists, who revealed cruel treatment of soldiers and cases of their deaths before they were out of the training). Soldiers who are speaking up against this are persecuted, and, in a good scenario, get dismissed from their position, and, in bad, get sent to zero line,” he said. Fedorov, he believed, brought “correct changes” to a conservative structure, especially his “turn to unmanned vehicles”.
“Drone should go to war, not people,” Vladyslav said.
Public procurement issues
Some protesters also believed Fedorov’s dismissal meant a return to an obscure supply system and corruption in procurement. Oleksandr, an acting service member who was in the hospital during the six months of Fedorov’s tenure, told me his colleagues believed the improvements were palpable.
“Drone procurement possibilities expanded, more fiber-optic drones appeared, and the quality of drones increased… I think that due to the public procurement that Fedorov was doing, resources were going (where they needed to).”
“If there’s no way to re-appoint Fedorov as a Ministry of Defense, they should at least dismiss Syrskyi,” Oleksandr said. When asked if he thought it to be a real possibility, he responded, “I think we have to pressure them to.”
In the July 16 piece, The Economist journalists wrote that Fedorov’s financial audit of the Ministry of Defense and army brigades, one of the first things he did after assuming the position, uncovered overspending of $6.6 billion (300 billion hryvnias). Syrskyi later denied any sort of audit happening in the Armed Forces during the last six months.
While the protests were starting, Zelenskyy started to choose the temporary head of the Defense Ministry. First, it was Ihor Klymenko, an acting head of the Interior Ministry, who refused the post. Then, Major General Evhen Khmara, acting head of SBU — Ukraine’s security service — according to Ukrainian law, only civilians can be appointed as Minister of Defense and their deputies. The Cabinet of Ministers then approved Khmara’s appointment. Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said that Fedorov would be ‘staying in his team’, though he didn’t specify his role.
The Ukrainian parliament, on the other hand, decided to go on holiday, leaving the country in the fifth year of full-scale war without the Defense Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. They didn’t approve Khmara as an acting Defense Minister.
At the third protest, we asked Ksenia, one of the participants, how the mood of the people had changed after days of demonstrations. She said, “First, there are more of them now. Second, people are much angrier because they are not heard.”
On Jul. 19, there were 450 people at Freedom Square, according to police. Marharyta criticized “stupid decisions” and corruption in the government and told Gwara that she’ll be participating in demonstrations until there is a “decision that will benefit the military.”
Cover photo: Protesters in Kharkiv on Jul. 18, with signs saying (from left to right), “Oust Syrskyi,” “Authorities have a shift to their common sense / The more ignoring there is, the more demands there are,” “Dismissal of Fedorov is beneficial to the enemy”
Hi! I’m Yana, editor-in-chief of Gwara Media, and, while I wrote the article, many of my colleagues participated in its creation. All of us appreciate you paying attention to what’s happening in Ukraine and to our Kharkiv-based newsroom. Please, consider also supporting our independent local media financially by buying us a coffee.
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