Protests erupted in Ukraine on Thursday after Mykhailo Fedorov's removal - and now soldiers are also criticising the move.

Crowds took to the streets of Kyiv on Thursday following the removal of defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov "My operation is scheduled for tomorrow," says the disfigured soldier, still recovering from his terrible injuries. "I hope when I wake up after the anaesthetic, Fedorov will be back at the Ministry of Defence," the unnamed soldier says in a video posted on Telegram. "Otherwise, everything I was fighting for will have been in vain." Among Ukraine's battle-weary soldiers and wounded veterans, there's a collective sense of outrage at this week's political developments. President Zelensky's decision not to re-appoint his successful young defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, in his latest cabinet reshuffle, has caused bafflement and fury in equal measure. "It is a blatant slap in the face to all service members," said a soldier we're calling Maryna, to protect her identity. Despite the noisy protests breaking out across Ukraine, Maryna doubts popular anger is going to change anything. "A dictatorship is already unfolding here," she says, "with its own petty tyrants who think they have caught God by the beard."