But he was acclaimed for his reforms while serving as Ukraine's minister of digital transformation, and his new duties included logistics, budgets, reforms, anticorruption measures and deals to secure multibillion-dollar Western aid or loans. After his appointment in January, Fedorov provided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a list of urgent problems and ways to solve them. He mentioned a "chaotic" management system, constant rotations of commanding officers, non-transparent distribution of arms and military equipment, bureaucracy, resistance to reforms from Commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii's General Staff of Armed Forces, decision-making based on loyalty and not data analysis, and "isolation" of effective commanders and proponents of reforms. Then on Wednesday, just seven months into his role, Fedorov was removed from his position by Zelenskyy. The changes that Fedorov was trying to bring about in Ukraine's military had angered Syrskii. But Fedorov's ouster appears to have angered Ukrainians even more -- potentially presenting Zelenskyy with a political challenge. Rallies, relatively large by wartime Ukraine's standards, have since erupted in Kyiv and key Ukrainian cities. "He's a young, smart, educated person who proved with his previous job that he really is a reformer and can make Ukraine a nation of the future," Taisiya, who rallied on Thursday in central Kyiv, told Al Jazeera.

Ukraine's president plans to use the Nato meeting in Turkey to urge Kyiv's allies to deliver the air defence systems it urgently needs to protect it from escalating Russian attacks. Volodymyr Zelensky's call for help rings with extra intensity after Russian missiles rained down on the Ukrainian capital twice in less than a week, crashing into blocks of flats and killing more than 50 civilians. The summit in Ankara will also be a chance for Zelensky to hold a crucial meeting with Donald Trump and press home his case that Russia's brutal attacks are a show of weakness, not strength, and that Vladimir Putin should be pressured into talks towards a dignified peace. The latest strikes on Ukraine come as it has been stepping up its own long-range drone attacks against Russia, hitting oil refineries and military targets there and causing significant fuel shortages and power cuts. To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Russian social media accounts are full of videos of people queuing for hours to buy petrol and fighting over what little they're allowed.

Image caption, Ukraine's military described St Petersburg's oil terminal as one of the largest in Russia A major oil terminal in Russia's second city of St Petersburg in the north-west was struck overnight by Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. He described it as key infrastructure that generates revenue for Russia's war. Ukraine also said a major Russian naval base in the region was hit. St Petersburg Governor Aleksandr Beglov said the city was under a massive drone attack, admitting the oil terminal was hit. Ukraine has recently intensified its long-range drone attacks on Russia's critical energy infrastructure, causing widespread fuel shortages.

Russia launched one of its heaviest attacks on Kyiv with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, killing at least 18 people. Ukraine President Zelenskyy called air defense an absolute priority.

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Russian forces have launched a major drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv overnight, killing at least eight people, officials say. Several neighbourhoods were evacuated as strikes rocked buildings throughout the city, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Russia was preparing for a massive attack. Children were among the significant number of casualties, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv's military administration, said. The enemy is once again deliberately targeting residential areas and killing civilians, he said in the early hours of Thursday. On Thursday morning, daylight brought clearer images of a crater which appeared to be caused by the impact of explosions.

Is the war entering a new phase? Russian missile and drone strikes on Ukraine have killed at least eight people and wounded 34 others, Ukrainian authorities say, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the "horrific attacks". Zelenskyy said on Monday that at least five people were killed and 28 wounded in a Russian missile attack on Dnipro city, an industrial hub around 100 km (62 miles) from the front line, that is regularly targeted by Russian forces. He posted images of a building with shattered windows and a blurred photo of a body lying near a stairwell. "People have traumatic brain injuries, shrapnel wounds, fractures and blast trauma," he said.

Ukraine launched a significant drone attack against Russia as the brutal, years-long war between the two enemy nations continues to drag on.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky says he has returned Poland's highest honour after his Polish counterpart Karol Nawrocki said he was stripping him of the award. The Polish Order of the White Eagle was bestowed on Zelensky in 2023 by then-President Andrzej Duda. But Kyiv caused outrage last month after renaming a Ukrainian army unit after a group of controversial World War Two fighters called the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Three senior Ukrainian officials have also said they are returning awards bestowed by Poland, to show solidarity with their president. Many in Ukraine regard the UPA, which existed in the 1940s and 1950s, as heroes who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Soviet Red Army, Nazi Germany and Polish authorities.

Nine people have been killed and several others injured in a wave of Russian strikes on Ukraine during which a major religious landmark in Kyiv caught fire, reports say. Four people were killed in attacks on Kyiv, while five rescue workers died trying to put out a fire caused by a Russian strike on the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said. The 11th Century Dormition Cathedral was significantly damaged in what Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko called a brutal assault on our people and our heritage. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone attack in the Russian city of Tula, south of Moscow, killed three people and wounded three others, including a one-year-old, officials said. Drone and missile strikes set fire to buildings and cars and left more than 140,000 people in Ukraine's capital without electricity, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.