Zelensky Reshuffles His Government After a Deadly Kyiv Strike
President Zelensky dismissed his defence minister, Mykhaylo Fedorov, in a government reshuffle that also followed the recent removal of his prime minister, as Ukraine looks for fresh momentum in the war. The shake-up came hours after Russian missiles struck two districts of Kyiv early on Thursday, killing at least two people, including a teenager, and setting warehouses ablaze — shortly before Sir Keir Starmer arrived in the city. The United Nations said June had been the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians in more than three years.
A wartime reshuffle that removes both a defence minister and a prime minister in short order signals either a search for fresh energy or friction at the top over how the war is being run, and it lands at a moment when Ukraine is trying to convert Europe’s deepening support into battlefield staying power. The timing of the Kyiv strike — hours before an outgoing British Prime Minister arrived to reaffirm support — was a message from Moscow that it is unmoved by that support, and the UN’s finding that June was the deadliest month for civilians in three years is a grim measure of where the war has gone. The new European missile-defence coalition is meant to blunt exactly these barrages, but it will take time to field. For Ukraine the immediate need is air defence and the political stability to use it. Watch the shape of Zelensky’s new team, the civilian toll as the strikes continue, and whether Western deliveries keep pace.