Mikhail Fedorov held approximately six hours of negotiations with President Zelensky over the weekend — and left them without a new position. According to Financial Times, Zelensky offered Fedorov a place on the National Security and Defense Council with direct access to the president and a mandate to oversee defense innovations and military reform. Fedorov refused.
What exactly was offered
Under the terms of the proposal, Fedorov would oversee defense technology programs and the scaling up of long-range weapons production — essentially continuing reforms, but outside the Defense Ministry and military command. In parallel, as reported by RBC-Ukraine, the idea of a new separate ministry under him was also being considered — however, according to sources, this option was also rejected.
LIGA.net sources in Fedorov's circle say: he will not agree to anything short of returning to the position of defense minister. This is a principled stance that formed after mass protests shifted the balance in negotiations.
How protests rewrote the rules of the game
On July 17, more than 10,000 people gathered in Kyiv in support of Fedorov, with rallies spreading to more than a dozen cities in Ukraine and Warsaw. A week earlier, sources in the Servant of the People party assured LIGA.net: Fedorov's return to the Defense Ministry was no longer under consideration. The street changed this calculation.
"He now has many levers of influence. He wants one thing: to be reinstated as defense minister. And he knows that the majority of society is on his side."
— Financial Times source familiar with negotiations
FT also reported that Zelensky, amid the protests, is considering replacing Commander-in-Chief Syrsky — as an attempt to find a way out of the worst military leadership crisis of his presidency.
What the real bargaining is about
The proposed position on the National Security and Defense Council would have given Fedorov essentially the same functions — defense technologies, reforms, access to the president. But it would not have given him one thing: the institutional status of a minister. The difference between "an advisor with authority" and "a minister" is not about bureaucracy. It is about who signs orders, who is accountable to Parliament, and who sits at the negotiating table with NATO partners.
On July 18, Zelensky said he had spoken with both Fedorov and Syrsky, and assured that he heard the position of the protesters. On the same day, Fedorov thanked Ukrainians and announced "changes" — without specifying what they would be.
If Zelensky does not announce by the end of the week either Fedorov's return to the Defense Ministry or Syrsky's resignation, the protests will most likely resume — the only question is whether they will maintain the same scale without a specific event as a catalyst.
