Russia’s War in Ukraine

Understanding the conflict four years on.

It took the crowds outside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office less than one week to get the leader to reverse a recent decision. On July 15, Zelensky fired Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, the technocrat who digitized the Ukrainian state and was trying to do the same to its army, and named Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Soviet-schooled commander that Fedorov had pressed the president to remove, as his replacement. A week later, Zelensky reversed course.

Ukrainians are dubbing the protests the “Cardboard Maidan,” after the 2014 demonstrations that drove a corrupt president from office. Every evening for a week, crowds gathered near the presidential office, holding handmade signs torn from boxes and demanding that Zelensky remove Syrskyi and reinstate Fedorov. Soldiers and veterans joined students and activists, and rallies spread to other Ukrainian cities.

It took the crowds outside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office less than one week to get the leader to reverse a recent decision. On July 15, Zelensky fired Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, the technocrat who digitized the Ukrainian state and was trying to do the same to its army, and named Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Soviet-schooled commander that Fedorov had pressed the president to remove, as his replacement. A week later, Zelensky reversed course.

Ukrainians are dubbing the protests the “Cardboard Maidan,” after the 2014 demonstrations that drove a corrupt president from office. Every evening for a week, crowds gathered near the presidential office, holding handmade signs torn from boxes and demanding that Zelensky remove Syrskyi and reinstate Fedorov. Soldiers and veterans joined students and activists, and rallies spread to other Ukrainian cities.

Zelensky heard them out, at least in part. He announced the dismissal of Syrskyi and named Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi as the new army chief. Drapatyi, part of the new generation of army leaders, was the combat commander who led an armored breakthrough in Mariupol in 2014 and later helped organize the defense of Kryvyi Rih and the liberation of the Kherson region’s western bank.

But even though Zelensky has accepted the fact that the military needs to change, he has yet to decide whether Fedorov should be given the power to lead that change. The president has offered Fedorov vague government posts, but protest organizers said the demonstrations will continue until he is back in his old position.

“He made the digital passport, digital everything,” a source close to the president told Foreign Policy, requesting anonymity considering the sensitivity of the subject. “This is the only good thing that remains after we are out of power. So, I think he’s become untouchable to some extent.”

Zelensky thought otherwise. He dismissed Fedorov after a meeting with military leadership, which came as part of a shakeup that........

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