The protests began as a fight for justice but ended up nearly becoming part of Fedorov's new political project, an expert says.

The cardboard protests, whose participants supported Mykhailo Fedorov, ended with an attempt to use them as the foundation for the former defense minister’s new political project. Political expert Oleksandr Chernenko wrote about this, analyzing the start of the new political season. 

According to him, Fedorov himself ended the rallies by publishing a campaign video address. 

"Paradoxically, Fedorov himself ended the protests. The politician whom the protesters were defending found time to record a campaign address, but did not find time to come out to the people. The participants in the Maidan emphasized that they were for Fedorov and against politics, elections, and speculation. But Fedorov said the opposite: he is for elections," Chernenko wrote. 

The expert emphasized that after Fedorov’s video address, the organizers of the Maidan were forced to distance themselves from the politician and wind down the protest. 

"The organizers of the Maidan quickly realized that Mikhail was no longer on the same path with them – he had received the political springboard he needed. And the statement about elections came as a complete surprise: people were still standing outside the Verkhovna Rada and demanding "Fedorov – to the Ministry of Defense!", while he was already campaigning for elections and preparing for a political tour of the United States. Under these conditions, the protest became pointless – and it was wound down," the expert wrote.  

In the expert’s view, Fedorov was able to use the protests as the launchpad for his own political career.  

"The former defense minister managed to appropriate the protest’s political capital, but did not take responsibility for the protest itself. People felt that they had been used: they came out against injustice, but nearly became extras in yet another political project," Chernenko concluded.

As previously reported, Mykhailo Fedorov published a video in which he named holding elections as one of his political demands. Maidan organizer Dmytro Koziatynskyi said that the demand for elections "is so ridiculous that I cannot imagine how anyone can even think about it now." Fedorov’s adviser Serhii Sternenko also rejected the idea of holding elections during the war: "Elections are unacceptable in any form while the full-scale aggression continues. This will tear the country apart from within," he wrote.