Category: News

KYIV, Ukraine — One is a tech-savvy drone innovator with no military experience who became Ukraine’s youngest defense minister six months ago and was credited with contributing to successes in defending against Russia’s 4-year-old invasion.

The other is a seasoned, Soviet-trained general more at home with traditional top-down command culture who led Ukraine’s armed forces.

When their personalities and policies clashed, President Volodymyr Zelensky decided one of them had to go as part of a wider government reshuffle. He dismissed the popular young upstart, sparking protests across the country.

A look at the contrasting careers of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov and commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi.

The youthful face of Ukraine’s drone war

The 35-year-old Fedorov was credited with modernizing Ukraine’s drone program and changed military procurement rules in a crackdown on corruption. He argued that the military establishment was resisting changes demanded by the evolving war with Russia.

The former tech entrepreneur drove forward Ukraine’s innovative drone technology that has recently reshaped the battlefield and has earned the interest of other countries, including the United States, as well as those in Europe and the Middle East.

“We transformed Ukraine into a global tech leader and a defense powerhouse,” he said on social media after he lost his job last week in Zelensky’s government shake-up.

Fedorov also took credit for restricting Russian military access to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet services.

Before becoming defense minister in January, Fedorov headed Ukraine’s digital transformation policies and introduced successful e-government platforms.

Fedorov got that job after running the digital operations of Zelensky’s presidential election campaign in 2019. Before that, he ran a digital marketing company.

After his dismissal, Fedorov publicly accused Syrskyi of blocking military reforms and insisting on a traditional command culture. That criticism echoed complaints from soldiers and veterans over heavy casualties in costly front-line assaults.

Appearing at a news conference in a dark T-shirt and jeans, Fedorov accused Syrskyi of blocking reforms needed because “the war has changed completely” due to new technology.

The Soviet-trained general dubbed ‘the Butcher’

Protesters framed Fedorov’s removal as an example of Zelensky siding in the feud with an entrenched military old guard over a modernizer.

Syrskyi, 60, was born when Ukraine was still part of the USSR. He attended Moscow Higher Military Command School and served in the Soviet Artillery Corps. He has long been associated with a Soviet-style, top-down command culture.

He played a key role in some of Ukraine’s biggest victories in its war, overseeing the successful defense of Kyiv in the early days of the invasion in February 2022. Seven months later, Syrskyi was credited with orchestrating the counteroffensive in the Kharkiv region, one of the most significant Ukrainian victories in the war.

“I’m not fighting the (defense) ministry. I’m fighting Russia,” Syrskyi said in a column published Monday in the Ukrainian military outlet Militarnyi that defended his conduct.

“The General Staff has never opposed the ministry — we have cooperated and will keep cooperating with whichever minister the state appoints. Because in the army, you don’t get to choose who you serve with. In the army, you follow orders and do your job,” he said.

Within the military, Syrskyi earned the nickname of “Butcher,” a label that gained wider currency during his command of the ill-fated defense of Bakhmut, one of the war’s longest battles that killed tens of thousands of people.

His reputation took another hit after the Ukrainian outlet Babel published an investigation last month detailing allegations of abuse within the Skelia assault regiment, a unit closely associated with Syrskyi. It reportedly has suffered higher-than-average losses. The investigation documented dozens of deaths among recruits.

The ouster brings protests in Ukraine, glee in Russia

The protests of Fedorov’s ouster and the backlash against Syrskyi reached into the military, with the air force’s deputy commander resigning and warning it would weaken Ukraine’s air defenses. Veterans and soldiers on leave joined the protests. Many demonstrators said they wanted a new generation of generals who would prioritize preserving soldiers’ lives.

The stakes are high for Zelensky. The outcry appeared to leave him open to accusations that by ousting Fedorov, he was trying to get rid of a possible political rival. The episode threatened to undermine his authority.

Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko called Syrskyi “a more convenient and more comfortable” choice for Zelensky to keep in his government, adding that it turned out to be a “major miscalculation.”

Zelensky “underestimated the extent to which part of Ukrainian society had come to see Fedorov as perhaps the main driver of the positive changes in Ukraine’s war against Russia,” added Fesenko, head of the Penta Center think tank.

Russian war bloggers responded to Fedorov’s dismissal with glee, noting his role in masterminding long-range drone strikes on oil facilities that have caused a fuel crisis and midrange attacks that disrupted military logistics.

Syrskyi, some noted with grudging respect, has built a string of defenses that have stalled Russian advances.

Many Moscow commentators voiced hope that the controversy would fuel political infighting in Ukraine and weaken its military.

CAIRO — The Israeli military is quietly but quickly building a giant earthen barrier separating the over 50% of the Gaza Strip it controls from the rest of the territory, according to satellite imagery, further entrenching the division of the tiny Palestinian enclave.

More than 14 miles have been constructed in recent months, running through Palestinian communities demolished by the military. That is equivalent to more than half the length of the coastal strip, which is some 25 miles long and 7 miles wide, and home to over 2 million Palestinians.

When presented with the satellite images, Israel’s military confirmed to the Associated Press it has built a physical barrier in the area of the so-called yellow line, the boundary to which Israeli troops withdrew under the October ceasefire deal with Hamas. The line was envisioned in the U.S.-backed agreement as a temporary division of the territory pending a fuller Israeli withdrawal.

But as the truce stagnates, it appears Israel is digging in, heightening Palestinian fears that the line is morphing into a border. Neither U.S. Central Command, which is tasked with monitoring the ceasefire, nor the Board of Peace, the body led by U.S. President Donald Trump meant to eventually oversee Gaza, would comment on the barrier.

Along with the barrier, the military told AP it has developed a “security zone” around the line, equipped with intelligence and technological assets. It declined to give details on the route of the barrier when asked how far it would be extended. It said the barrier aimed to prevent infiltration and protect Israeli troops and Israeli communities near Gaza.

Construction of the barrier is proceeding rapidly

Since the ceasefire deal took hold, Palestinians in Gaza have feared Israel would not return the area of Gaza it controls. But few appear to be aware of the berms now being built around them — because of the danger of even approaching that area.

A portion of the berm network in southern Gaza was extended by more than 1.2 miles in two weeks this month, according to the satellite images provided by Planet Labs PBC.

The berm was about 0.3 miles long on July 1. By July 15, it was about 1.5 miles, splicing the Israel-controlled ruins of the city of Rafah from Muwasi, site of some of the largest Palestinian tent camps.

If construction continues in its current direction, it will join up with the longest stretch of the barrier, which runs nearly unbroken for around 10 miles from the southern city of Khan Younis to near Gaza City, in the north.

Construction began on that stretch in February, and it appears work to extend it further south is continuing, according to the satellite images. More than 0.6 miles was added between June 21 and July 7, running close to an Israeli military base built on the ruins of the town of Bani Suheila, near Khan Younis.

In the far north of Gaza, several unconnected stretches of berms run just outside the largely leveled town of Beit Lahia.

The height of the berms in each place remains unclear. In some places, the barriers appear to run outside the yellow line.

Israel has mostly destroyed and depopulated the half of Gaza it controls

Gaza’s population has been crowded into the coastal area west of the yellow line, most living in squalid tent camps and dependent on aid.

On the other side of the line, satellite imagery shows that Israeli forces have leveled the vast majority of buildings using bulldozers and explosives, virtually erasing several towns and Rafah, once home to more than a quarter million people.

They have carved new road networks and erected new bases on the ruins of Palestinian towns. Agricultural land has also been destroyed. The Israeli military says it is demolishing infrastructure used by Hamas.

The yellow line was never precisely defined, whether in the ceasefire deal or by Israeli or U.S. officials, and it has been inconsistently marked on the ground. The military told AP it is working to clearly mark the route of the yellow line to “reduce friction and prevent harm to uninvolved individuals.”

Israeli forces have killed Palestinians who came close to the line or crossed it. The Israeli military says it fires on those believed to be militants threatening its troops. But those killed have included children and other civilians seemingly unaware of the line. Some soldiers have said they don’t always know who they are firing on and have orders to kill anyone crossing the boundary.

Israeli strikes have killed hundreds of Palestinians since ceasefire

Israeli forces have killed more than 1,100 Palestinians since the ceasefire began, most in airstrikes and drone strikes around Gaza. Militant attacks have killed five Israeli soldiers in the same period.

Early on Tuesday, an Israeli strike in Gaza City killed Firas al-Masri, his wife, and their four children, ages 6 to 13, according to Shifa Hospital. Israel’s military only said that they conducted a strike on Hamas militants in the area at that time.

Firas’ brother, Ahmad al-Masri, lives nearby and said he heard the children’s voices at the moment of the blast.

“They were calling out to me, ‘Uncle! Uncle!’” he said. “But the fire was raging, and we couldn’t do anything.”

Under the ceasefire deal, Israel is eventually supposed to withdraw its troops further to the very edges of Gaza, to be replaced by an international security force. But implementation of the deal has been stalled for months.

A former U.N. diplomat now in charge of coordinating the ceasefire has blamed Hamas’ failure to disarm. Sporadic talks to reach a formula for decommissioning its weapons appear to have made little progress, and Hamas accuses Israel in turn of violating the ceasefire.

The war began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 others hostage. Israel responded with a punishing military offensive that has killed more than 73,000 people, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The ministry, which was part of the recently dissolved Hamas-run government, maintains detailed records viewed as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and international organizations. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants but says women and children make up around half of all fatalities.

The Trump administration’s disruptions to a global AIDS relief program have forced organizations to close clinics, lay off staff, and cut services, seriously impeding efforts to prevent and treat the disease in dozens of countries, a new report released Tuesday shows.

The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, is credited with saving at least 26 million lives since its inception in 2003. But last year, it was impaired by the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and cuts to thousands of global health grants.

“The disruptions were very widespread,” with services for young women, orphans, and children impacted, said Elise Lankiewicz, policy associate for the nonprofit amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, which released the report.

Researchers contacted groups that got PEPFAR funding to deliver HIV services last year. Nearly a quarter — 166 groups from 46 countries — responded to an electronic survey conducted between last November and April, providing information on their funding, staff, and services.

The survey didn’t reach all PEPFAR groups and certain types of organizations — like those that were most severely disrupted or still receiving U.S. funding — may have been less likely to respond. That could result in an underestimate or an overestimate of disruptions, depending on which organizations were missed. Nevertheless, the findings are a window into the struggles that some groups faced last year.

Some key findings were:

— Most organizations had at least one award terminated or payment delayed last year. Terminations led to the closure of more than 1,700 clinics, drop-in centers, and other service delivery sites, and to the loss of more than 16,000 full-time staff members.

— Even though the U.S. government directed services providing HIV treatment, testing, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission to continue, a majority of partners still reported a disruption to those services.

— Cuts were concentrated on services for populations most impacted by HIV. Most organizations previously serving groups such as sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender people, and people who inject drugs reported permanently ending a service for these groups. Even among organizations that didn’t lose funding, some reported stopping a service for one of these key populations to comply with U.S. policy.

— HIV prevention has been sharply reduced, with many organizations stopping condom programs or services offering what’s called PrEP, preventive medicines to guard against sexually transmitted HIV. From fiscal years 2024 to 2025, prevention spending fell 51%, according to PEPFAR expenditure data.

— Locally-based partners were much more likely than international organizations to have an award terminated and to close service delivery sites. Funding disruptions also destabilized interconnected HIV service systems.

“Taken together, these results describe widespread degradation of the infrastructure built to deliver HIV services worldwide, with the deepest damage falling on the populations and partners most essential to controlling the epidemic,” the report says.

The survey doesn’t provide data at the country level, but amfAR officials point out that the majority of responses came from African countries.

When asked about the report, a State Department spokesperson said in an email that the Trump administration has “strengthened PEPFAR through clear, strategic direction.”

“As a result, the number of children testing positive and on treatment for HIV has continued to decline,” the spokesperson said.

In April, the U.S. State Department released PEPFAR data for one quarter in 2025: July through September. Officials said PEPFAR-supported programs provided standard HIV treatment for 20.6 million people in more than 50 countries, which they said is stable from the same reporting period in 2024. They also said PEPFAR started 103,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women on PrEP, up from 43,000 the previous year.

The data from that quarter “demonstrates the resilience and strength of the program,” the spokesperson said.

But researchers from amfAR and the International AIDS Society combined that quarter’s data with another data release that included all four quarters and found substantial disruptions across PEPFAR services.

Other research, published in the journal Nature Health in June, specifically examined treatment globally using PEPFAR data. It found that nearly 2 million fewer people living with HIV were receiving PEPFAR-supported antiretroviral treatment in fiscal year 2025 as compared with the previous fiscal year — about a 10% decline.

“That does raise really important questions about program stability,” said Ramona Godbole, an author of that study who wasn’t involved in the latest report.

AmfAR’s report made numerous recommendations to help restore care. It said the U.S. government and PEPFAR leaders should reinstate support for all HIV services, not just treatment. It also called on other national governments to spend more on HIV services and contract with nongovernmental organizations, including those led by people in key vulnerable populations.

But Jennifer Sherwood, amfAR’s director of research and public policy, said even if money is put back into the system, it will take time to get the services up and running and regain the trust of communities.

“And unfortunately, with HIV and infectious disease, each day is deadly,” she said. “Each day that we don’t have those systems in place, you see new infections.”