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Kyiv protests and a commander-in-chief's dismissal
Summary
A look back at the political pressure in Kyiv around 26 July 2026, as protesters demanded the return of a dismissed defence minister.
What was driving the protests in Kyiv on 26 July 2026? By then, demonstrators had been on the streets for more than a week over the removal of Mykhailo Fedorov as Minister of Defence, and they wanted him reinstated.
As reported on 24 July, thousands of people had gathered in Kyiv for the ninth consecutive day. The demand did not change: Fedorov's return to the defence ministry.
A change at the top of the army
The pressure was already visible in the military leadership. On 21 July, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Oleksandr Syrskyi as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He appointed Mykhailo Drapatyi, who had commanded the Joint Forces, as the replacement. As reported at the time, the move came amid the protests over Fedorov's removal.
Ukrainian-language reports of the same day described the dismissal as taking place against a backdrop of protests demanding Syrskyi's removal.
What it meant
The sequence put two senior defence posts in play within days: the ministry, where the protesters wanted Fedorov back, and the army's top command, where Drapatyi replaced Syrskyi. The street movement continued to centre on the minister, even after the president changed the commander-in-chief. That gap between the demand and the response defined the political situation in the capital on 26 July 2026.
