Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is navigating the most volatile week of his wartime presidency. On July 15-17 he dismissed Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov and Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko in a government overhaul driven by the Fedorov-Syrskyi feud, installing former Naftogaz CEO Serhii Koretskyi as PM with 289 votes and Yevhenii Khmara as acting defense minister. The Fedorov firing triggered mass protests across Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, and Dnipro, plus the resignation of Air Force Deputy Commander Pavlo Yelizarov, who called it a great evil for national defense. As of July 18, Zelenskyy is weighing the dismissal of Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, interviewing candidates and meeting six corps commanders to manage the transition. He said a president in wartime should not have to choose between factions.

Simultaneously, Ukraine launched coordinated July 18 drone strikes on Russian logistics centers in Tambov and Moscow regions, hitting Wildberries warehouses, oil depots in Noginsk and the Nafto-Service facility, and maritime targets near occupied Crimea. Zelenskyy called the strikes long-range sanctions against facilities supplying sanctioned components for Russian drone and navigation equipment. This builds on a 40-day campaign that disabled over 42% of Russia's refining capacity and evolved into Operation Molochka targeting 172 vessels of Russia's shadow fleet, with 105 struck in the Sea of Azov over eight days. He frames the campaign as influencing the aggressor state to end the war, saying the strikes are designed to make Putin feel the war personally.

On the alliance front, Zelenskyy signed the EU-Ukraine Drone Deal with Ursula von der Leyen on July 15, integrating 18 founding companies with a 1 billion euro disbursement and an EU exception allowing 5.9 billion euros for Chinese drone components. Ukraine now produces 10 million drones annually, targeting 20 million. He co-founded the 10-nation Integrated Anti-Ballistic Missile Coalition and the FREYJA interceptor system at the Paris summit, where Macron committed 16 Rafale jets and French-Italian missile manufacturing licenses. He secured Trump's authorization to produce Patriot interceptors domestically and met Romanian President Nicușor Dan to establish drone-incident direct-contact channels.

The Poland crisis deepened further as Polish authorities charged an 18-year-old Ukrainian with 47 acts of WWII memorial desecration allegedly funded by Russian intelligence, compounding Nawrocki's revocation of the Order of the White Eagle and Tusk's halt of MiG-29 transfers. At the Southeast Europe Summit, Bulgaria's leadership split publicly over weapons aid and Serbia's Vucic declined to sign the declaration, limiting the diplomatic yield. After a Russian strike killed 10 in a Vyshneve residential area, Zelenskyy ordered accountability for Ukroboronprom officials, calling it a direct violation of the law and a Supreme Commander-in-Chief's staff decision.