Why is Zelensky firing top leaders as Ukraine’s outlook improves?

The Washington Post ^ | July 22 2026 | David L. Stern, Steve Hendrix and Serhii Korolchuk

[MinorityRepublican]

From the outside, this was shaping up as a strong year for wartime Ukraine.

Ukrainian drones are burning Russia’s refineries and starving occupied Crimea of fuel. Moscow’s summer offensive has stalled on most parts of the front, and Ukraine is taking back territory. In Washington, a president who spent last year berating Kyiv has warmed to it again.

But suddenly last week, President Volodymyr Zelensky dismantled what looked like a winning team — removing his popular defense minister, his prime minister and, late Tuesday, the acclaimed commander in chief of his armed forces.

Zelensky, the comedian turned president who has won worldwide renown as a wartime leader but also been shadowed by corruption scandals, has explained little beyond announcing a reshuffling of Ukraine’s “political strategy.”

That didn’t satisfy the thousands of Ukrainians — averse to any whiff of public malfeasance — who poured into streets across the country to protest, in particular, the removal of Mykhailo Fedorov, revered by many as a key architect of Ukraine’s breakthrough advances in drone warfare.

The tumult has left Ukrainians to sift through why-now theories of the internal machinations erupting just as Ukraine was gaining ground on Russia. The possible explanations include a generational fight over how to wage a modern war, conflicts over corruption, simmering turf battles between the Defense Ministry and the generals, and a president who is prone to removing subordinates when they grow too popular.

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TOPICS: Ukraine
KEYWORDS: davidlstern; leftistsource; putinthewarpig; russiansuicide; russiantrollfarm; serhiikorolchuk; stevehendrix; vladtheimploder; washingtoncompost; washingtonpost

[umbagi]

The fewer the $lices of the pie, the larger the $lices…

[FlyingEagle]

It’s what Dictators do.

[TeleStraightShooter]

a “defending democracy” dictator who suspended elections

[xkaydet65]

Agreed. The war may be nearing a conclusion and those actually involved in the Ukie success may want to challenge Zelensky for office. Fire them, marginalize them. You know who Zelensky will become?....Putin.

[AlaskaErik]

Letting Defense Minister Fedorov go while keeping General Sirskyi was a blunder. But now that Syrskyi has been replaced with General Drapaty Ukraine has a Commander-in-Chief that is much more in tune with how to fight the war going forward. Sirskyi was a relic of the Soviet era and was ill-equipped to fight the war Ukraine is now waging against Russia.