{"id":15068,"date":"2026-07-23T21:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15068"},"modified":"2026-07-23T21:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:52:08","slug":"ukraines-ousted-defense-minister-rejects-zelenskyys-offer-of-a-different-government-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=15068","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine&#8217;s ousted defense minister rejects Zelenskyy&#8217;s offer of a different government role"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\" data-body-type=\"bodyblocks\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Ukraine&#8217;s <a data-ylk=\"slk:fired defense minister;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-ukraine-war-military-leaders-reform-6f7a6e338b9add87fd53ef99b136e8e1\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">fired defense minister<\/a> said Thursday he has rejected President Volodymyr Zelenskyy&#8217;s efforts to persuade him to rejoin the government in a different role where he could continue fighting <a data-ylk=\"slk:Russia's more than 4-year-old invasion;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Russia&#8217;s more than 4-year-old invasion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mykhailo Fedorov, who was dismissed last week after just six months in the job, is a youthful and popular public figure due to his success in <a data-ylk=\"slk:modernizing the armed forces;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-ukraine-war-zelenskyy-crisis-fedorov-syrskyi-c1a230ae6d56bb32a38367e18638e12a\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">modernizing the armed forces<\/a> and giving Ukraine an edge in the war through innovative use of technology. He has also cracked down on corruption in military procurement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">His departure triggered street protests across Ukraine that have put pressure on Zelenskyy and cheered Moscow officials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Fedorov said in a statement that leading the Defense Ministry was one of only three jobs that &#8220;actually shape the course of the war,&#8221; along with the presidency and chief of the armed forces.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He said that he would &#8220;not accept any position other than&#8221; defense minister, in what amounted to a defiant stance against Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Ukrainian president said earlier Thursday he had offered Fedorov the position of deputy prime minister for military innovation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Fedorov said he wanted to finish his reforms at the Defense Ministry, which were cut short after his relationship soured with Soviet-trained commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, who was viewed as part of the military old guard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;No other role carries the actual authority to combat procurement corruption, complete the army&#8217;s transformation, plan and execute asymmetric operations against the enemy, root out a culture of lies and unaccountability within the system,&#8221; he said of the Defense Ministry post.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He said he took over last January with a plan to end the war by improving air defenses and holding firm on the front line while hurting Russia&#8217;s economy through long-range strikes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Our collective results created something unprecedented, a window of opportunity to force Russia into peace through strength. And we cannot afford to lose it,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">___<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Follow the AP&#8217;s coverage of the war in Ukraine at <a data-ylk=\"slk:https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/russia-ukraine<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Ukraine&#8217;s fired defense minister said Thursday he has rejected President Volodymyr Zelenskyy&#8217;s efforts to persuade him to rejoin the government in a different role where he could continue fighting Russia&#8217;s more than 4-year-old invasion. Mykhailo Fedorov, who was dismissed last week after just six months in the job, is a youthful&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/lo\/mysterio\/api\/fd388c8f2036ac5ab13498fb21cfdd029c786bf5dfbf5f21f93aa3ec58622db8\/lightyear_networkapi\/resizefill_w1200;quality_80;format_webp\/https:%2F%2Fmedia.zenfs.com%2Fen%2Fap.org%2F501d2e14a318ac4fdea91bb63636aa2a","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-trending-viral-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}