Mass protests in Ukraine after Zelensky sacks popular defence minister | BBC News — Transcript

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1. 0:00Protests have been taking place in Kiev
2. 0:02and other Ukrainian cities after
3. 0:04President Zalinski sacked his popular
4. 0:06young defense minister Mikailo Fedorov.
5. 0:09The deputy head of Ukraine's air force
6. 0:11and two key defense ministry advisers
7. 0:14have resigned in protest. The unrest
8. 0:16happened as secure star visited Kiev for
9. 0:18the final time as prime minister and was
10. 0:21awarded Ukraine's highest honor, the
11. 0:23order of freedom. Paul Adams has the
12. 0:26latest.
13. 0:31A key of square echoing to the sound of
14. 0:33the ousted minister's name.
15. 0:40>> Shame. Shame. THEY CHANT.
16. 0:43>> YOUNG Ukrainians are furious at the
17. 0:45sacking of a man they credit with
18. 0:47helping to turn the tide of the war.
19. 0:49It's a decisive time for our country and
20. 0:52we really need to show up and uh like uh
21. 0:55show uh to our president that uh we
22. 0:58really support our minister of defense.
23. 1:01>> We have an advantage right now in terms
24. 1:04of like deep strikes in terms of
25. 1:07unmanned systems and uh I feel that the
26. 1:10person responsible for that is further.
27. 1:13So why why why is he losing his job?
28. 1:17This is where we are uh kill.
29. 1:20>> I met Mihilo Fedorov last year as
30. 1:23minister of digital transformation. He
31. 1:25was already developing innovative ways
32. 1:27to fight Russia,
33. 1:31including the decisive use of drones in
34. 1:33the air, on land, and at sea. Drones, he
35. 1:36says, now account for 95% of all Russian
36. 1:40casualties. But since becoming defense
37. 1:42minister earlier this year, he's run
38. 1:44into obstacles. Ukraine's military
39. 1:46establishment, he says, unwilling to
40. 1:48adapt. It's put him at loggerheads with
41. 1:50the country's powerful military chief,
42. 1:52Alexander Syski.
43. 1:57We've run into the fact that all the
44. 1:58initiatives we propose have started to
45. 2:01be blocked and cersi given all the
46. 2:04problems we've discussed today is not
47. 2:06ready to speak openly about these issues
48. 2:08face to face.
49. 2:10The president welcoming Sakir Stama to
50. 2:12Kiev for his last visit as Labour leader
51. 2:15says he faced an invidious choice. His
52. 2:18defense minister and military chief he
53. 2:20says unable to work together.
54. 2:24>> To be honest, the president is not
55. 2:26supposed to pick sides in this kind of
56. 2:28situation during wartime. I would very
57. 2:31much like unity. The two sides did not
58. 2:34find it.
59. 2:38But Kiev's young protesters say the
60. 2:40president has made the wrong choice.
61. 2:42They're not letting this moment go. A
62. 2:45year ago, thousands of Ukrainians took
63. 2:47to these same streets to protest after
64. 2:49President Zalinski sacked some
65. 2:52anti-corruption officials. They forced
66. 2:54him to change his mind. They're hoping
67. 2:56to do it again. Paul Adams, BBC News
68. 3:00here.