Four die in Russian missile attacks as Zelensky faces crisis over sacking

Russian attacks on Ukraine overnight killed at least four civilians and wounded 20 other people, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as he faces a political crisis after sacking his popular defence minister.

Mr Zelensky’s major reshuffle of his government on Thursday, which included the appointment of a new prime minister, unsettled the country’s military leadership and trigged a public outcry.

It was an unwelcome difficulty after Ukraine has gained traction in its fight against Russia’s more than four-year-old invasion.

The surprise departure from the defence ministry of Mykhailo Fedorov, a youthful and popular member of the government, saw thousands of people demonstrate against his dismissal in cities across Ukraine on Thursday. Further street protests were expected on Friday.

Fedorov, 35, who was in the post for just six months, is widely seen as the driving force behind Ukraine’s swift and successful technological innovation and other measures, such as fighting military corruption, that have brought fresh hope in the war for Ukrainians.

Relations between Mr Fedorov and General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces who started his military career in the former Soviet Union, had broken down, according to Mr Zelenskyy, and made Mr Fedorov’s position untenable.

Mr Zelensky said he had asked Major General Yevhen Khmara, acting head of the state’s security service and a highly regarded special operations expert, to take over the defence minister’s duties.

Moscow’s response to its battlefield difficulties and Ukraine’s targeting of Russian oil facilities, which has caused severe fuel shortages, has focused in part on relentless strategic bombing of civilian areas of Ukraine.

Two people were killed and 10 others injured, including children, in an overnight Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa, regional military administration head Oleh Kiper said.

One of those killed was a woman who had been walking in a park with her children, who survived, he said.

In the Zaporizhzhia region, two people were killed and five more were injured in a strike, according to Mr Zelensky. He said three people were injured as a result of Russian shelling in the north-eastern Kharkiv region.

Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry said that air defences downed 243 Ukrainian drones overnight into Friday.

Three civilians were killed and seven others injured in Ukrainian drone attacks over the previous 24 hours, according to Vladimir Saldo, the Moscow-appointed head of the Russia-occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson region.