By Dan Peleschuk and Yuliia Dysa
KYIV, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Ukrainian lawmakers appointed a new defence minister on Wednesday, hours after his ousted predecessor dealt a major blow to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy with a call for elections in wartime.
Yevhenii Khmara, a former top special forces operative, takes up the critical defence portfolio amid fresh political turmoil for the president, who had faced weeks of protests over his dismissal of 35-year-old reformer Mykhailo Fedorov.
Khmara's appointment
also took place just hours after anti-corruption authorities announced charges against a deputy chief of Zelenskiy's office as part of an alleged $3 million money-laundering scheme.
Fedorov's removal as defence minister in July brought thousands of demonstrators onto the streets in rare wartime protests over a surprise shake-up seen as poorly communicated to the public at a critical time in the war with Russia.
His bold call for elections in the fifth year of fighting drew accusations of populism in a country where a majority of people still oppose a wartime vote, even though many argue that Ukraine needs fresh faces in power.
"He chose to move on the populist trajectory, underlining the risks and challenges for democratic process of election," said Lesia Bidochko, a policy fellow at the European Policy Institute in Kyiv.
MAJOR CHALLENGE
In his statement late on Tuesday, Fedorov said the country faced a crisis of governance and that Ukraine's democratic process "cannot be held hostage by Russia".
Wartime elections are prohibited under law. An August 5 poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology showed 57% of Ukrainians believe they should only take place after the war, given that hundreds of thousands of troops are on the front line and Russian missiles and drones are raining down on Ukrainian cities, towns and villages.
"We must find a legal, safe and realistic mechanism that will allow Ukraine to renew its full democratic process even in the conditions of a long war," said Fedorov.
He did not say whether he would compete in any election, but another recent poll indicated the tech-savvy Fedorov - Zelenskiy's longest-standing ally - would comfortably beat his former boss in a runoff vote.
Bidochko said there was still no realistic procedure for organising a vote, with millions of Ukrainians living as refugees overseas, displaced within the country, and serving in the military.
"Currently, it looks like an elegant way of occupying the opposition space without taking responsibility for the mechanics," she said of Fedorov.
Opinion on the streets and online was mixed on Wednesday.
"On the one hand, holding elections right now isn't the best idea. On the other hand, it's like a serious ultimatum to the president that could make him reconsider his appointments," said Ivan Hnatenko, one of the protesters who gathered in front of the parliament ahead of the vote on Khmara.
A Threads app user under the name of 'tovita' said she was profoundly disappointed with Fedorov's move. She has been attending protests for his reinstatement but said it was a disaster "if that was election agitation".
ZELENSKIY'S 'DRONE'
Khmara, who briefly served as acting head of Ukraine's SBU security service, was not Zelenskiy's primary pick for defence minister and he was named as a placeholder only after the protests broke out.
Best known as the mastermind of Ukraine's deep strikes into Russia, Khmara steps into the role as Kyiv struggles to defend against mounting Russian ballistic-missile attacks and grinding advances on the front line.
Two of his predecessors had led the ministry for barely half a year each, fuelling accusations of a lack of consistency at the country's most important ministry.
"Yevhenii Khmara is the president's drone: photogenic, heroic, obedient, and lacking its own governing system", said Mariana Bezuhla, an outspoken lawmaker with the presidential faction.
Protesters and opposition lawmakers have cited Khmara's strong reputation, but have lashed out at Zelenskiy for what they saw as a poorly explained decision to sack Fedorov.
NEW INVESTIGATION
Ukraine's anti-corruption authorities said in a YouTube video they had uncovered a group including a deputy head of the presidential office in a scheme that aimed to pay for bail in an existing energy corruption scandal.
The announcement built on a major investigation unveiled last November into an alleged $100 million kickback scheme at the state atomic energy agency that ensnared Zelenskiy's then-chief of staff, sparking widespread public anger.
The anti-graft agencies did not name the official, but Zelenskiy dismissed adviser Iryna Mudra shortly after the probe was announced. She has not yet publicly commented on the matter.
(Additional reporting by Anna Pruchnicka; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Gareth Jones)
