The political crisis in Kiev encompassing both state-society and civil-military tensions is perhaps the harbinger of or already the manifestation of the kind of crisis situation that can provoke a military coup or some other form of revolutionary or otherwise illegal seizure of power. Or this may be a creeping coup of sorts in which more conventional politicians in Ukraine are pushed aside allowing neofascist elements to rise and take control—a kind of transition to neofascism. As I have argued continuously, war, including the present NATO-Russia Ukrainian War, poses the grave risk of military defeat sparking regime and state collapse and a military or palace coup perhaps led by neofascists seeking to ‘finish the nationalist revolution’ that they envisioned in the Maidan revolt of February 2014.
The present crisis’s symptoms are the sacking of Ukraine’s prime minister (Olga Svyryidenko replaced by the coffee entrepreneur and more recently oil and gas technocrat Sergei Koretskiy, defense minister (Mikhail Fedorov replaced by acting MVD chief Yevgeniy Khmara), commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy replaced by Gen. Mikhailo Drapatiy), Chief of the General Staff (Maj. Gen. Andriy Gnatov replaced by Maj. Gen. Igor Sibyuk), and MVD chief (Igor Klimenko replaced by Ukrainian Police Chairman Ivan Vihivskiy). In addition, Klimenko replaces former Defense Minister Rustem Umerov as Secretary of the Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. Umerov has been caught up in the Mindichgate corruption affairs and other scandals and has finally been jettisoned by Zelenskiy.
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ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED THERE ON 28 JULY 2026
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About the Author –
Gordon M. Hahn, Ph.D., is an Expert Analyst at Corr Analytics, www.canalyt.com. Websites: Russian and Eurasian Politics, gordonhahn.com and gordonhahn.academia.edu
Dr. Hahn is the author of the new book: Russian Tselostnost’: Wholeness in Russian Thought, Culture, History, and Politics (Europe Books, 2022). He has authored five previous, well-received books: The Russian Dilemma: Security, Vigilance, and Relations with the West from Ivan III to Putin (McFarland, 2021); Ukraine Over the Edge: Russia, the West, and the “New Cold War” (McFarland, 2018); The Caucasus Emirate Mujahedin: Global Jihadism in Russia’s North Caucasus and Beyond (McFarland, 2014), Russia’s Islamic Threat (Yale University Press, 2007), and Russia’s Revolution From Above: Reform, Transition and Revolution in the Fall of the Soviet Communist Regime, 1985-2000 (Transaction, 2002). He also has published numerous think tank reports, academic articles, analyses, and commentaries in both English and Russian language media.
Dr. Hahn taught at Boston, American, Stanford, San Jose State, and San Francisco State Universities and as a Fulbright Scholar at Saint Petersburg State University, Russia and was a senior associate and visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Kennan Institute in Washington DC, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and the Center for Terrorism and Intelligence Studies (CETIS), Akribis Group.