Mykhailo Fedorov’s attempts to turn the protests calling for his return to the Ministry of Defence into his own political project turned out to be a false start for him. A number of prominent global media outlets wrote about this, emphasizing that after the former minister called for elections to be held during the war, even the protesters began distancing themselves from him. Meanwhile, Britain’s The Times featured the assessment in its headline: "Demanding elections now is exactly what Putin wants," reports UNN.
Thus, Britain’s The Guardian called Fedorov’s actions a political false start.
"Fedorov’s move was a political false start that could burn through his political capital even before actual elections. It also showed that Fedorov does not feel the country," The Guardian’s article states.
In its article, Reuters writes that the former minister’s attempt to widen the conflict and shift it into the political sphere failed: "Fedorov failed to win over even the protesters who had previously demanded his return."
The Guardian describes a similar picture. The outlet notes that after Fedorov’s statement, the protests began to fade, while his supporters and experts decided that the former minister had "gone too far."
Britain’s The Times put the reaction to Fedorov’s main demand directly in its headline: "The Ukrainian former minister’s call for elections is exactly what Putin wants."
The Times also drew attention to a circumstance inconvenient for the former minister: "Fedorov himself helped build the system he is now publicly criticizing and was part of it for many years."
The International Business Times describes the situation even more directly: Fedorov "overplayed his hand." According to the outlet, Fedorov’s decision to expand the demands to include holding elections split the protest.
"The protesters who had spent weeks demanding Fedorov’s return to the Ministry of Defence did not support his new political campaign," the outlet states.
Deutsche Welle called Fedorov’s statements the beginning of an independent political game. One of the experts interviewed by DW calls his speech an attempt to "consolidate the political capital gained during the protests."
The reaction to Fedorov’s political debut came even more harshly not from experts, but from people who themselves had taken to the streets in support of him. Thus, Euronews collected comments from protesters following the former minister’s video address. One of the most popular sentiments boiled down to the following:
"I did not take to the streets for the sake of your political ambitions, but so that you would remain in the Ministry of Defence," the outlet quotes a participant in the cardboard-sign protest as saying. Other protesters addressed Fedorov: "Do you really think this is a good time for a campaign video?"; "If you had been reinstated, would you not criticize the system and call for elections?"; "There is a feeling that you have taken too much upon yourself."
Euronews itself summed up the story with a telling headline: "After weeks of rallies in support of Fedorov, protesters rejected his call for elections during the war."