Zelenskyys

Returning from the US, Zelenskyy says Ukrainians’ safety depends on allies’ willingness to provide anti-missile defences.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko says some non-residential sites in the city caught fire as Russia struck the Ukrainian capital with ballistic missiles.

Multiple explosions were heard in the city at 1:18am on Thursday (22:18 GMT Wednesday), according to Kyiv Independent reporters on the ground. Klitschko instructed people to seek shelter.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had warned on Wednesday that a massive Russian attack on Ukraine was likely and the safety of Ukrainians depended on the willingness of allies to provide anti-missile defences.

He was returning from the United States, where he said President Donald Trump had agreed to give Ukraine licences to make Patriot missiles.

Zelenskyy also repeated his request to Ukraine’s allies to supply Kyiv with the missiles its air defence system lacks in an X post.

In early July, Trump had expressed his intention to allow Ukraine to make the surface-to-air missiles at a time when Russia had stepped up its ballistic missile strikes.

Only US Patriot systems are capable of shooting down Russian missiles, but Ukraine is short of PAC-3 interceptor missiles.

This shortage has worsened since the war on Iran launched by the US and Israel in February.

In Washington, DC, Zelenskyy held what he called a “good meeting” with Trump, as he underscored Russian President Vladimir Putin’s loss of initiative on the war front due to heavy losses.

Zelenskyy spent just over an hour with Trump at the White House, in talks that came as Kyiv and Moscow intensified long-range strikes, as US-led diplomatic efforts to end the war stalled.

After the meeting, Trump posted photos to social media with a note that said: “Many things were discussed. The meeting went very well!”

Relations between Zelenskyy and Trump have warmed since the start of the US president’s second term, with Trump suggesting earlier this month that Ukrainian strikes inside Russia “could help” end the war.

Mykhailo Fedorov has been credited with reforming defence procurement and tackling corruption.

Hundreds of people have gathered near the Ivan Franko National Theatre in central Kyiv to protest against the dismissal of Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, calling on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to reverse the decision.

According to local media reports, protests also took place in several other cities on Thursday, including Lviv, Odesa and Dnipro, while in Kyiv, protesters chanted “Shame!” and carried placards reading “The Russians are celebrating”.

The theatre is close to the presidential office, the site of last July’s so-called “cardboard protest”, when public pressure prompted Zelenskyy to reverse a widely criticised measure that stripped Ukraine’s anticorruption agencies of their independence.

The demonstrations came as Ukraine’s parliament prepared to vote on a new wartime government on Thursday following Fedorov’s departure as defence minister. The wider overhaul also saw Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko leave office.

The move forms part of Zelenskyy’s second cabinet reshuffle in a year. Lawmakers expect Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko to replace Fedorov as defence minister. Parliament is also expected to approve the appointment of energy executive Serhii Koretskyi as prime minister, along with new defence and foreign ministers.

Writing on X, Fedorov said it had been “a great honour to serve the Ukrainian people” as the minister of defence, before outlining what he described as the ministry’s key achievements during his tenure, including disabling “Starlink access for Russian forces” and launching programmes to expand Ukraine’s domestic drone production amid the ongoing war with Moscow.

The 35-year-old technology specialist, who previously served as Ukraine’s first minister for digital transformation, has been credited with streamlining bureaucracy and introducing a more data-driven approach to the war against Russia.

Supporters say his efforts to reform defence procurement and tackle corruption won him enemies within parts of the political and military establishment. However, critics say he failed to deliver quickly enough on promises to overhaul military recruitment.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said he wanted the Ministry of Defence and military leadership to work with greater unity, appearing to acknowledge reports of tensions between Fedorov and other officials.

A former top aide to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appeared in court as prosecutors seek his arrest on charges of involvement in a multimillion-dollar money laundering scheme.

Prosecutors allege that Yermak, 54, funnelled about 460 million Ukrainian hryvnias ($10.5m) into a high-end Dynasty housing complex in Kozyn, near Kyiv.

Investigators suspect that funds used in the development may have originated from corruption at Energoatom, Ukraine’s state nuclear energy company.

The prosecution has asked the court to remand Yermak in custody, with bail set at 180 million Ukrainian hryvnias ($4m).

Yermak denied the allegations.

The hearing is due to resume on Wednesday.

“The notice of suspicion is unfounded,” Yermak wrote on Telegram following Tuesday’s proceedings. “As a lawyer with more than 30 years of experience, I have always been guided by the law. And now I will likewise defend my rights, my name, and my reputation.”

Earlier, during a break in proceedings, he told reporters: “I own only one apartment and one car.”

The case is part of a broader anticorruption operation, dubbed “Midas”, led by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO). The operation was unveiled last November, when Timur Mindich, a former business associate of Zelenskyy, was accused of orchestrating a $100m kickback scheme at Energaotom.

Mindich, who denies the allegations, has fled to Israel.

Prosecutors said Mindich and several other senior officials, including former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Chernyshov, are “implicated” in the Dynasty case.

They said Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council and a key negotiator in the United States-led efforts at peace with Russia, has also been questioned and is a witness in the case.

Corruption scandal

Yermak, a one-time film producer who helped engineer Zelenskyy’s unlikely ascent from playing a fictional president on television to leading a country at war, resigned as chief of staff in November after investigators raided his home as part of the Energoatom probe.

NABU chief Semen Kryvonos confirmed on Tuesday that Zelenskyy himself was not the subject of any investigation.

A sitting president cannot legally be investigated.

Zelenskyy has not commented publicly on the charges against his former aide. A communications adviser said on Monday that it was too early to address the matter.

The latest charges come with Ukraine still dependent on critical Western financial aid, contingent partly on anticorruption reforms. ⁠The US-backed peace push has stalled in the fifth year of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s government last year attempted to strip the independence of NABU and SAPO, which were established after a pro-democracy uprising in 2014.

The move triggered rare wartime antigovernment protests and forced Zelenskyy to walk back the decision after criticism from the European Union, Kyiv’s key financial and military backer.

Some lawmakers, including members of ⁠Zelenskyy’s governing Servant of the People party, saw a silver lining in the case against Yermak, saying it served as an encouraging sign of Ukraine’s drive to fight corruption.

“Partners see that Ukraine has an independent anticorruption system that is performing its function,” said Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the parliamentary foreign-affairs committee.

Zelenskyy’s public approval has remained relatively stable in recent months, despite the heightened focus on corruption, with about 58 percent of Ukrainians trusting the president, the Kyiv International Institute of ‌Sociology said on May 4.

In a May 6 poll, however, it found that 54 percent believe corruption is a greater threat to Ukraine’s development than Russia’s war, when given an option between the two.