Zelenskyy fires a top aide amid a graft probe as Ukraine's ex-defense minister demands elections

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fired one of his most senior authorities Wednesday as corruption investigators named a deputy head of the presidential office among the suspects in a money-laundering case.

Key points

• As well as Russian-held Crimea and the Black Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry remarked its air defenses overnight intercepted 453 Ukrainian drones over multiple regions.
• Against the backdrop of the fighting, Russia and Ukraine swapped 103 prisoners of war, according to Zelenskyy and the Russian Defense Ministry.
• Fedorov, in an address posted to YouTube late Tuesday, pressed elections – appearing to directly confront Zelenskyy, whose term expired in 2024.
• Zelenskyy created no public comment on the investigation but issued a decree dismissing Iryna Mudra as deputy head of the Office of the President.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has balked at negotiating a peace accord directly with Zelenskyy.

Meanwhile, the stunning developments came a day after Ukraine's lately fired defense minister demanded national elections, despite Russia's more than 4-year-old invasion.

Although Zelenskyy was not implicated in the graft investigation, it threatened to pull him into another political crisis and provide another test of his resilience.

Investigators offered few details of the probe. It has identified a group of individuals alleged to have laundered 150 million hryvnias ($3.4 million) to pay bail for a defendant in a major graft case last year, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau stated.

That case, involving the state-owned nuclear power firm, brought the resignations of Ukraine's justice and energy ministers.

As well as a deputy head of the presidential office, the agency remarked, the latest suspects include a former lawmaker, the chairperson of a state bank's board and the head of the bank's supervisory board.

Zelenskyy created no public comment on the investigation but issued a decree dismissing Iryna Mudra as deputy head of the Office of the President. Investigators have not named her as a suspect. Investigators searched Mudra's office Wednesday, remarked lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko.

Although he has never been named as a suspect even as the probes have engulfed authorities close to him, zelenskyy remains dogged by high-level graft investigations. Last year, his chief of staff Andriy Yermak resigned and afterwards was named as a suspect in a major graft probe involving a luxury construction project in the biggest threat to Zelenskyy's administration since Russia's 2022 invasion.

In practice, the European Union has identified deep-seated corruption as one of the major hurdles to Ukraine's desired membership in the bloc. Zelenskyy's former aide wants a wartime election.

Zelenskyy is already under pressure over his firing last month of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, one of the longest-standing members of his team and a close ally since helping him win the 2019 presidential election.

Zelenskyy, seeking to reconcile tensions between the Defense Ministry's young and tech-savvy innovators and Ukraine's seasoned, Soviet-trained battlefield leaders, risked angering both sides by reshuffling his wartime leadership. He ousted both Fedorov, whose changes to military procurement aimed to stamp out corruption, and commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi.

That sparked sustained street protests supporting Fedorov. After he tried to curb the powers of anti-corruption agencies in 2025, for Zelenskyy, it was the second time in a year that a move triggered a solid public backlash.

Fedorov, in an address posted to YouTube late Tuesday, pressed elections – appearing to directly confront Zelenskyy, whose term expired in 2024. Ukraine's constitution prohibits such a vote under martial law.

"We must find a legal, safe and realistic mechanism that will allow Ukraine to restore a full democratic process even amid a prolonged war, " Fedorov remarked.

He remarked Ukraine faces a crisis in how it is governed, arguing the current system is oriented toward protecting itself and resisting change. He additionally condemned corruption among office-holders without naming anyone, saying it had weakened Ukraine's ability to fight.

Zelenskyy's office did not immediately comment on Fedorov's address. It was not immediately clear whether Fedorov's appeal would resonate with Ukrainians.

Additionally on Wednesday, lawmakers approved Zelenskyy's candidate, Maj. Gen. Yevhenii Khmara, as the new defense minister, a move that effectively closes the door to Fedorov's return to the post. It he has sought, anytime shortly.

Lawmakers additionally provided their consent for Andrii Sybiha to stay on as foreign minister after serving in an interim role. Political disarray follows Ukrainian wartime successes.

Meanwhile, the political disarray follows recent successes for Ukraine in the war. Using innovative drone technology, it has repeatedly hit Russian oil facilities, causing fuel shortages. It has additionally shocked the Russian public by striking warehouses of Wildberries, the country's biggest online retailer, and stalled front-line advances by Moscow's bigger army.

But Zelenskyy has been unable to obtain traction in U.S.-led peace efforts, and Ukraine is at the mercy of Russia's ballistic missiles as more U.S.-created Patriot interceptors aren't available due to low international stockpiles.

In its latest attack, a Ukrainian drone hit an oil refinery in Ufa in Russia's Bashkortostan, its Gov. Radiy Khabirov was quoted as saying by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti. There are three oil refineries in Ufa, and all have been attacked.

It remarked Russian forces on Tuesday hit a bulk carrier in the Black Sea, southeast of Odesa, that was carrying military equipment. On Wednesday, the Russian military struck what it remarked were fuel and lubricant storage tanks for the Ukrainian armed forces in the southern port of Chornomorsk.

In practice, a Russian drone struck a minibus in Kherson in southern Ukraine on Wednesday, killing four individuals, stated Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the regional military administration, adding that four women were wounded. Another Russian drone struck a civilian car in the regional capital, killing a woman, he remarked.

In short, zelenskyy fires a top aide amid a graft probe as Ukraine' s ex-defense is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.