One of the organizers responsible for bringing Ukrainians to the streets says the people will resume protesting Friday night at 20:00 if Mykhailo Fedorov isn’t reinstated as defense minister.
Artem Hetsko, a member of the NGO, Spalah, which means spark in Ukrainian, told me Thursday afternoon that the dismissal of Oleksandr Syrskyi as commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was only one of the two main demands of protesters. The other was to rehire Fedorov. In my conversation with Hetsko, it was clear that neither he nor the protesters I spoke with this week are in love with the ex-defense minister.
Their desire to have him in top leadership has more to do with what his reforms represent for Ukrainian society: a fast track to E.U. and NATO membership, more humane approach to mobilization many Ukrainians feel is cruel and inefficient, and a major opponent to corruption.
“You can’t (defeat) large Soviet army with small Soviet army,” Hetsko said. “We can’t call (Syrskyi) a Soviet general or something. He’s a great general. We can’t call him a bad man or an evil man because he defended Kyiv. But, as people say, as other staff say, he maybe has some old school tactics (that are detrimental for our soldiers). Fedorov is a new face, a new school in our government, in our military, in our defense structures.”
Hetsko and I also discussed the very controversial issue of mobilization and how that has become a sticking point here in Ukraine, given the dearth of manpower across the armed forces, poor reputation of how some commanders treat soldiers and concerns over corruption many Ukrianians feel is weakening the military’s capacity to fight a winning war.
These were all points protesters brought up to me at the recent demonstration this week in Kyiv.
We’re likely gonna see protests because Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has offered Fedorov a job as a deputy prime minister, which he rejected. He is only interested in returning to the government as defense minister. It is clear Fedorov believes he has leverage in his negotiations with Zelenskyy.
