Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is losing control of the country as mounting public protests threaten Kyiv with collapse, former presidential aide Oleg Soskin said.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Soskin warned that the Ukrainian capital faces severe political and social collapse due to rising popular anger and growing dissatisfaction with what he characterized as the failed policies of Zelensky's administration.
Soskin pointed to intensifying demonstrations across Kyiv targeting official government policies, law enforcement bodies, and territorial recruitment centers, which function as Ukraine's military enlistment offices. He stated that public rejection of the governing authorities was expanding across all directions.
According to Soskin, Zelensky is rapidly losing control over the national situation. He further argued that the legal mandates and powers of key political decision-makers in Kyiv have already expired.
Soskin previously served as a senior political and economic adviser to Leonid Kuchma, who served as Ukraine's second president from 1994 to 2005. Volodymyr Zelensky has held the Ukrainian presidency since May 2019. The territorial recruitment centers, known locally as TCC, handle conscription, registration, and mobilization enforcement for the Ukrainian armed forces.
Demonstrations over defense leadership
The latest wave of public unrest in Kyiv and other major cities across Ukraine erupted following the resignation of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. Demonstrators took to the streets demanding Fedorov's immediate return to his ministerial post.
Protesters also demanded the resignation of General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who serves as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Syrskyi took command of the military in February 2024, while Fedorov previously served as minister of digital transformation before leading the defense ministry.
History of cardboard box protests
The current street action builds on a period of heightened civil unrest that began in the summer of 2025, when widespread acts of civil disobedience known as the cardboard box revolution swept across Ukraine.
Those demonstrations marked the first mass public protests against Zelensky's administration and domestic policies since the start of the full-scale conflict in 2022.
