A protest against the dismissal of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, which began at Franko Square near the Office of the President in the center of Kyiv on Thursday, continues at the same location on Friday.
As an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent said, fewer than 200 people are participating, mostly young people, and the majority are women.
They are standing in a section of the square between the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater building and a non-functioning fountain, chanting "Fedorov!", "We stood, we are standing, and we will stand," "Drones, not people," "Ukraine, rise up," and other slogans; they also sang the national anthem of Ukraine. The rally site overlooks the Office of the President building, to which access is restricted under martial law.
The participants are holding various cardboard signs with slogans such as "Why do ministers have more rotations than the military?", "Hands off Fedorov," "For what?", and others, which the protesters held in the same square on Thursday. There are significantly more cardboard signs than protesters, with dozens of them laid out on the lawns of the square and in the empty fountain basin.
On Friday, the participants were noticeably more frequent in demanding the resignation of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky than on Thursday, chanting corresponding slogans and holding cardboard signs with similar messages.
A small group of protesters is resting in the shade in the same square. The rally is peaceful, and traffic is not blocked. Police representatives and numerous media representatives, mostly foreign, are present at the site.
The weather in Kyiv is hot and sunny.
As reported, calls to gather for a rally against the dismissal of Fedorov began to spread on social networks on Wednesday evening. On Thursday morning, the event gathered about two thousand participants, but by evening, fewer than 400 remained. Mostly young people took part in the event.
