Many Ukrainian soldiers outraged over removal of defence minister, troops tell BBC
"My operation is scheduled for tomorrow," says the disfigured soldier, still recovering from his terrible injuries. "I hope when I wake up after the anaesthetic
"My operation is scheduled for tomorrow," says the disfigured soldier, still recovering from his terrible injuries. "I hope when I wake up after the anaesthetic, Fedorov will be back at the Ministry of Defence," the unnamed soldier says in a video posted on Telegram. "Otherwise, everything I was fighting for will have been in vain." Among Ukraine's battle-weary soldiers and wounded veterans, there's a collective sense of outrage at this week's political developments.
President Zelensky's decision not to re-appoint his successful young defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, in his latest cabinet reshuffle, has caused bafflement and fury in equal measure. "It is a blatant slap in the face to all service members," said a soldier we're calling Maryna, to protect her identity. "It is truly difficult to put this into words without venting in frustration." Despite the noisy protests breaking out across Ukraine, Maryna doubts popular anger is going to change anything.
"A dictatorship is already unfolding here," she says, "with its own petty tyrants who think they have caught God by the beard." With army chiefs reportedly warning the ranks not to engage in political debate, soldiers are reluctant to speak openly or do so only on condition of strict anonymity. We have given made up names to all those who replied. Another soldier, Natasha, said the protesters with their makeshift cardboard placards, were a long way from the daily brutality of the front line.
"Yesterday our positions here got hit by MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems), so nobody cared about Fedorov or the cardboard signs."
The BriefWire