Cardboard Heart
Ukraine's Soul
Cardboard Heart, ©2026 William L. Brown.
News of Ukraine’s cabinet shuffle started with a report that Ukraine’s ambassador to the US was stepping down for personal reasons. According to a government insider, Ambassador Olha Stefanishyna is under investigation for illegal income in a transaction involving an apartment or car.
At the same time came news of the prime minister’s resignation, which in effect dissolved the cabinet. One of them, presumably the prime minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, was to be named ambassador to the US. Spotless, competent diplomatic relations are vital to Ukraine, but dissolving the cabinet to get the best candidate seemed a bit drastic.
A cabinet-shuffle was due to happen in the fall, anyway, said journalists who follow Ukraine’s government.
But surely, said commentators and the public, the cabinet reshuffle would not include Fedorov, the popular young Minister of Defense, only six months into the position, but responsible for many exciting reforms and new approaches that seemed to be at least partially responsible for Ukraine’s advances in the war?
Yes, it did, After wavering a couple of days, on July 15 Zelensky indicated Mykhailo Fedorov would go.
Shuffle, ©2026 William L. Brown.
Rumors and reports flew. It’s hard to trust any of them. Little is on the record about interagency disputes, and inside sources have their own interests and biases. Federov was treading on toes, some say, cancelling overly-favorable contracts with defense manufacturers who happen to have ministry friends. Others say Fedeoov was big on innovation, small on the basics–like providing ammunition to the troops.
Fedorov went on the record July 16 criticizing 60-year old Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.
But we found ourselves in a situation where every initiative we put forward began to be blocked. Syrskyi is not willing to discuss problems face-to-face. He is willing to attend meetings in person, to engage in intrigues and to assume that someone ordered a media campaign against him, rather than acknowledge that the problem lies in what is actually happening. This ultimately led to a situation in which, in effect, he issued an ultimatum.
Instead of figuring out how to defeat Russia asymmetrically, he figured out how to split the country.
Zelensky spoke up on this rift between Fedorov and Syrskyi, saying he tried to get them to work together.
And when we talk about issues relating to the battlefield, military operations, the situation in the brigades, military enlistment offices and forced mobilisation practices, all of which exist, we have to acknowledge what we are doing right, and what is wrong and a disgrace. These problems need to be solved. I am not saying which of the two sides should solve them. I believe they should do it together.
Many people are dismayed by Fedorov’s dismissal and the cabinet reshuffling. For two days large crowds have protested in Kyiv and other cities. They carry cardboard signs, reminiscent of last July’s Cardboard Revolution, a youth-led protest movement that succeeded in reversing Zelensky’s decision to seize control of Ukraine’s anti-corruption investigation agencies*.
These protests show Ukraine’s soul. The people are determined to live free in an uncorrupt country. They’ve been protesting shady presidents since the country gained independence. The protests have turned into revolutions more than once: the Orange Revolution in 2004 and the Revolution of Dignity in 2014.
The prevalence of young people in these protests is significant. Since before the Soviet Union collapsed Ukrainians wanted the advantages of a western-style economy and political system. That goal has been just out of reach for thirty years, largely due to Russia trying to stop them by every means including war.
Steering their country to the west is desperately important to their immediate futures. They want to be free, and to have a good jobs, decent products, consumer protections, safe infrastructure, good schools and medical care.
Cutting Off Crimea, ©2026 William L. Brown.
Fedorov gets credit for successes in the Crimea campaign. Arial and naval drone have made resupply to the peninsula, occupied by Russia since 2014, very difficult. That, and increasing numbers of attacks on Russia’s oil refineries, have created gas and electricity shortages.
Cardboard drones. ©2026 William L. Brown
Cardboard is not just for protest signs, Low-cost cardboard drones were developed in Australia, sent to Ukraine in 2023 and are now used routinely in the war effort.
Though the media focus has been on the government drama and on Ukraine’s sucesses in Crimea and Russia, Russia continues to inch forward in Donetsk, trying to occupy that oblast to the administrative borders, which it has already claimed as its own, but has failed to occupy.
I recommend following 5_minutes_with, who writes from the city of Dnipro, and sees steady, worrisome encroachment in that direction.
*Independent anti-corruption investigation agencies – imagine that!
How people here can’t see how important this is gives me a migraine. Love the art.