A personal view of Australian and International Politics
Contemporary politics,local and international current affairs, science, music and extracts from the Queensland Newspaper "THE WORKER" documenting the proud history of the Labour Movement.
MAHATMA GANDHI ~ Truth never damages a cause that is just.
A "topping out ceremony" was held at the Atlassian Central skyscraper in Sydney on Wednesday. (ABC News: Adam Griffiths)
In short:
Construction of the Atlassian skyscraper in Sydney's CBD has reached its full height.
The building is the tallest hybrid timber structure in the world at 180 metres.
To
mark the milestone, Atlassian chief executive Mike Cannon-Brookes spoke
at a "topping out ceremony" on the building's 39th storey.
The
CEO of tech giant Atlassian says AI-related job cuts have not impacted
its need for a new office tower at a ceremony celebrating the hybrid
timber skyscraper reaching its full height.
He
made the comments at a "topping out" ceremony on the Atlassian Central
building's rooftop in Sydney's CBD, a tradition in the construction
world to mark the milestone.
Construction of the 39-storey tower began at the site beside Central Station in 2022 and was estimated to cost $1.4 billion.
Atlassian Central has a hybrid timber design. (Supplied: Dexus)
A new Atlassian headquarters is being built next to Sydney's Central Station. (ABC News: Adam Griffiths)
The hybrid timber design used in construction also reduced the use of carbon-intensive concrete and steel.
The tower is expected to be completed in 2027, and is the world's tallest hybrid timber structure, standing at 180 metres.
Mike Cannon-Brookes says it will be "the most technologically advanced building in Australia". (ABC News: Adam Griffiths)
Co-CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes said that move had not reduced the requirement for floor space.
"I don't think [AI] stops the need for people coming together to work,"
Mr Cannon-Brookes said.
"We're going to have even more, I suspect, collaboration spaces, meeting spaces.
"So I think from that point of view, AI is going to not change our need to collaborate as humans."
Building 'put us all on the world stage'
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey says it is an "engineering marvel". (Supplied: Dexus)
Mr Cannon-Brookes said during the ceremony it would be the most innovative building in Australia.
"By
the time it opens, we'll have advanced structural engineering,
environmental design, intelligent controls, and a modern data platform,
all wired together and working the building with one smart, intelligent
system," Mr Cannon-Brookes said.
"The result will be the most technologically advanced building in Australia and put us all on the world stage."
Atlassian Central has a six-star Green Star target. (Supplied: Dexus)
The
building is co-owned by the tech company and commercial real estate
firm Dexus, with Atlassian set to occupy about half of the site.
The lower five floors of building will house a 500-bed "co-living" hostel operated by YHA Australia.
It
is part of a broader push by the state government and the City of
Sydney to set up a "Tech Central" precinct in the Haymarket-Redfern
area.
"All of Sydney is bearing witness to the rise and rise of an engineering marvel," NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said.
"Only
in a city like Sydney is it possible where you can combine
world-leading expertise, an immigrant population, and an ambitious
university sector coming together with local government to build a
precinct that can give birth to companies like Atlassian."
Social media footage captured a Wildberries warehouse on fire after Wednesday's attack. (Social media via Reuters)
In short:
Ukraine
has targeted warehouses linked to Russia's largest online retailer,
Wildberries, for the second time in a week, with one person reportedly
killed.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused the company of supplying the Russian army with drone components and navigation gear.
Meanwhile, Russia's defence ministry says it has carried out strikes on Ukrainian ports and vessels.
Kyiv's
drones hit warehouses of Russia's biggest online retailer for the
second time in a week, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
accusing the e-commerce giant of helping supply the Russian army.
Wildberries is the country's top online retailer, often called Russia's equivalent to Amazon.
The
governor of the southern Krasnodar region, Vladimir Kondratyev, said
one person was killed in Wednesday's strikes, but it was unclear if it
was at a Wildberries warehouse or elsewhere.
Kyiv has intensified its retaliatory strikes on Russia in recent months.
Wildberries
CEO Tatiana Kim said the company's logistic centres in the southern
cities of Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk were attacked and evacuated.
Ukrainian
drones sparked fires and killed eight people at the company's site
outside Moscow four days prior to the most recent attack. (Social media via Reuters)
"There
are no words that can describe the feelings and emotions because of
attacks on ordinary people, our employees," she said.
Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv had struck "logistics hubs
involved in supplying the Russian army with drone components, navigation
equipment and other gear."
Mr Zelenskyy had previously said the company had been storing drone components.
The governor of the region alleges one person died from the attacks but the location of the death remains unclear. (Social media via Reuters)
He
also said Kyiv had struck an oil depot as well as a "tanker and four
cargo ships" in the Black and Azov seas, where Ukraine has in recent
days intensified attacks.
Ukraine has disrupted Russian shipping in the Azov Sea, forcing Moscow to consider alternative shipping routes.
Ukrainian drones have hit as far as the Urals and Siberia and caused nationwide fuel shortages.
"We are, quite justly, bringing the war back home," Mr Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine
has said that its strikes aim to damage Russia's war effort as well as
to force the Kremlin to negotiate an end to more than four years of
conflict.
The UN on Tuesday said that civilian casualties in the war rose 37 per cent in the first half of 2026.
Russia hits Ukrainian ports and ships
Meanwhile,
Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday, local time, that it had
struck the Ukrainian cities of Odesa and Chornomorsk, hitting port
infrastructure and vessels that it said were supporting the Ukrainian
military.
The ministry said the
latest strikes had targeted a dry-cargo ship unloading at Chornomorsk
port, as well as a military cargo store and fuel and lubricant storage
tanks.
It said it had also hit
loading and storage facilities at Odesa, and a dry-cargo ship and a bulk
carrier that were transporting cargo to Odesa for the Ukrainian
military. Russian drones also hit three warehouses storing Ukrainian
drones, the ministry added in a statement.
Reuters could not independently verify the content of the statement.
Nearly
four and a half years into the war, Russia and Ukraine have stepped up
military activity in and around the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, with
each side attacking dozens of ships including oil tankers and cargo
vessels.
Hugh Marks, Alessandra Galloni and Matt Stanton were among the panel of news bosses discussing the role of AI in journalism. (ABC News/Supplied)
In short:
Australia's
biggest media organisations have called on AI companies to pay to
license journalism and cultural content, saying it should not be used to
train AI without permission.
The
ABC revealed AI developer Anthropic has already approached the
broadcaster about audio and video that capture how Australians speak.
Speaking
at the Andrew Olle Media Lecture, Reuters editor-in-chief Alessandra
Galloni said AI can support journalism, but warned original reporting
must be protected and paid for.
The
heads of Australia's biggest media companies have demanded that AI
companies pay for the "public good" of Australian news and culture used
without permission to train their technology.
Australian
news agencies are already in talks for licensing deals, with the ABC's
chief revealing that AI developer Anthropic had approached it about
audio and video that capture how Australians speak.
The
comments came during a panel featuring the heads of the ABC, SBS, Nine
and News Corp Australasia at the annual Andrew Olle lecture on Tuesday
night.
The wide-ranging
discussion covered everything from the role of AI in journalism to new
detail about the departure of former Today show host Karl Stefanovic.
ABC chief reveals AI firm Anthropic approached the broadcaster seeking audio and video of Australians speaking. (Reuters: Dado Ruvic)
ABC managing director Hugh Marks told the audience that journalism was a public good that needed to be protected.
"If we lose sight of the work that's being done … then I think we'll have a worse nation,"
he said.
Mr
Marks argued that AI companies should strike deals with Australian news
companies to license works, but also acknowledged a "delicate balance"
with also providing high-quality information to Australians who are
using AI.
This obligation to
inform shouldn't mean that news organisations should be expected to let
AI companies train on news free of charge, SBS managing director Jane
Palfreyman said: "Our collective view on that would be no."
Hugh Marks says AI developers should pay Australian news organisations to license their content. (ABC News: John Gunn)
News
Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said that AI
companies knew that the "theft" of Australian works was a "risk to their
business in Australia".
Nine
chief executive and managing director Matt Stanton said his company's
recent licensing deal, under which its journalism will be cited in
answers from Microsoft's AI tool Copilot, was a "good deal for both
sides".
Mr Stanton said that
Nine's decision to cut 30 job was not "directly" as a result of AI, when
pressed by panel moderator ABC Radio Sydney Mornings host Hamish
Macdonald.
He also said Karl
Stefanovic's "different directions" of his podcast had prompted Nine's
decision to part ways with the former Today host, even before his
controversial podcast with Tommy Robinson.
Paying for journalism
The
panel discussion followed a lecture by global news agency Reuters'
editor-in-chief Alessandra Galloni, who urged news organisations to set
firm terms for artificial intelligence companies using their work and to
share what they learn when AI tools go wrong.
Ms
Galloni said journalism remains the source of reliable, first-hand
reporting on which people and increasingly AI systems depend.
She
cited recent research showing that 10 per cent of people access
chatbots for news each week, including 16 per cent of people under 35.
Ms
Galloni argued publishers had no reason to give up on reaching those
audience but should strike deals to have their journalism correctly
attributed, accurately represented and paid for by the AI companies.
"Our journalism should be licensed, not taken,"
she said.
She
cited a speech delivered by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week
where he promised that Australian writers, musicians, artists and
journalists would retain control over work used to build and train AI.
Using AI in the newsroom
Ms
Galloni argued that it is the responsibility of news organisations to
help society understand the "pitfalls and possibilities of AI."
She
said that Reuters using AI to help reporters search large collections
of documents, find patterns and turn official material into fast news
updates, summaries and translations.
She
cited investigations that used AI to document thousands of social media
posts and speeches by US President Donald Trump, and to convert 20,000
pages of Syrian government documents into searchable text that was used
in an investigation that uncovered a mass grave.
Reuters
is also using AI to produce headlines from press releases, draft first
paragraphs in urgent stories, generate bullet-point summaries and
translate stories, Ms Galloni said.
But
Reuters only published journalism produced with AI once it had been
reviewed by a journalist and its use was disclosed when it played a
significant role in what was published, she said.
She
said on top of the AI's struggles with providing nuance and context, it
is also vulnerable to hallucinations and other mistakes. One
third-party tool tested by Reuters had once mistaken a SpaceX spacecraft
for a missile, she said.
"Thankfully we caught it," she said.
Ms Galloni said even advances in AI could not replace the reporting that made news valuable in the first place.
Reuters has 2,600 journalists in 165 countries, she said, including 70 staff covering the war in Ukraine and Russia.
"In
my conversations with tech companies, I have often been struck by how
little they understand about what original, first-hand, on-the-ground
journalism is and looks like," she said
Sharing what works
Ms
Galloni called on rival news organisations to share the lessons
emerging from those experiments, drawing a comparison to the way that
competing journalists will exchange safety information when in war
zones.
"I would venture that it
is our collective responsibility — to the public, to society — to
enhance our and their understanding about the pitfalls and possibilities
of AI," she said.
The Andrew
Olle media lecture was first held in 1996 to honour the ABC radio and
television broadcaster who died from an undiagnosed brain tumour in
1995.
Each year's lecture
features a speech on the future of journalism in Australia and raises
funds for charity Brain Cancer Australia.
Previous
lecturers have included New York Times executive editor Joseph Kahn,
Ray Martin and former News Corp co-chairman Lachlan Murdoch as well as
ABC journalists Leigh Sales and Fran Kelly.
In some Chinese-made electric vehicles, you can swap your empty battery for a new one in under five minutes.
It
sounds too good to be true, but the process is simple: drive your car
into a special swapping station, take your hands off the steering wheel,
then let robots take out the old battery and pop in a fresh one.
The
tech is just one example of how Chinese EV companies have pushed the
boundaries of automotive invention on their path to electric worldwide
domination.
Some Chinese EVs can have a new battery installed in about four minutes.
Other
Chinese companies have developed super-fast EV chargers that can
replenish a car's power to nearly 80 per cent in five minutes.
And finding a place to charge your car, a challenge in other parts of the world, is rarely a problem in China.
The country now boasts the largest EV charging network in the world with about one public charger for every 10 cars.
The
extraordinary infrastructure and technology advancements have seen
China largely overcome the problem of EV "range anxiety", the fear of
not having enough power to complete a trip, and helped put China at the
forefront of the world's electric vehicle revolution.
Chinese manufacturers are making cheap EVs with luxurious features. (Foreign Correspondent: Mitchell Woolnough)
China is now the undisputed global leader of the EV industry, producing almost 75 per cent of the world's EVs.
And it is not just production where China dominates.
The
country is widely considered superior in all stages of the EV process:
from conception and development through to manufacturing and exporting
to the rest of the world.
But China's EV juggernaut did not happen by accident.
The grand EV plan
China's
government decided to prioritise EVs in 2001 and developed a long-term
plan that would eventually catapult the country to the forefront of the
future automotive industry.
The
government focused on bankrolling new EV companies, giving loans to and
partnering with existing companies, funding research and development
programs, providing buyer rebates and tax exemptions, and building the
infrastructure needed to support an electric revolution.
More
than $US230 billion ($328 billion) of state capital was invested into
the emerging sector over a 15-year period to establish China's lead, and
in the process transform China into an electric society.
EVs can be identified in China by their green numberplates. (Foreign Correspondent: Angus Llewellyn)
Global
auto analyst Bill Russo, who has lived in China for more than 20 years,
said China had won the EV race by achieving total self-reliance.
"[China
wanted to] solve multiple problems at the same time: energy security,
environmental pollution concerns and industrial competitiveness," he
said.
"In order to get that
different path to take root, it invested in infrastructure, in tax
incentives, put subsidies in early and then, over time, gradually
removed them as the consumers started to accept the product."
Bill Russo says China's EV industry is "going global in a big way". (Foreign Correspondent: Mitchell Woolnough)
Mr
Russo said that instead of trying to replicate what other countries
were doing in the automotive space, China decided to transform the
sector.
China worked on
breaking its dependency on the part of the energy supply chain it did
not control, oil and gas, by developing new technology and new ways of
manufacturing, Mr Russo said.
Then the country re-imagined what a car could be.
"The entrepreneurial part of China said … 'We can be leaders — we don't have to catch up,'" Mr Russo said.
"Now they're introducing a whole new product configuration to the world which is the smart device on wheels.
"A moving living space with digital connectivity features. That's the really transformative innovation coming from China."
Luxury is the new standard — but cheap
Part
of the success of China's EV grand plan was making cheap cars with the
luxury trimmings usually reserved for higher-end brands.
China-based
car reviewer Ethan Robertson said a standard EV in China now included
TVs, fridges, massage chairs with zero gravity (that is, seats that
recline to near-flat), surround-sound audio, and above all else, digital
connectivity.
An EV with those features could be available for about $30,000 in China.
One
of the best-selling EVs in China is priced at under $15,000 and is made
by the world's biggest EV brand, Chinese-owned Build Your Dreams (BYD).
Close to 55 per cent of all new cars sold in China last year were electric.
Mr
Robertson said China was now leading the pack when it came to the
combination of technology, features and price — a mix he believed would
leave many global competitors struggling to keep up.
Ethan Robertson is an American car reviewer who has been watching China's EV industry rapidly develop. (Foreign Correspondent: Mitchell Woolnough)
"It's
a meme in China … if you don't have a big screen, a refrigerator that
also heats things, and individual seats with heating, cooling, massage,
zero gravity and everything else, you are uncompetitive," he said.
"These used to be stuff that you would have to pay thousands and thousands of dollars extra on cars from foreign manufacturers.
"But now that's the standard here."
Owning an EV is now cheaper than owning a petrol car in China.
Mr
Robertson said China could create the cheap but high-quality cars
because it dominated the entire supply chain from conception through to
the finished product.
"So long
as these other manufacturers from other countries struggle to produce
electric vehicles with the technology and the features and the price the
consumers around the world want, I think they're going to lag behind
the Chinese," he said.
One car every minute
The rapid advancement of automation and robotic development in China has redefined the speed at which cars can be produced.
Inside the manufacturing workshop of one of China's best-known EV brands, Nio, there is barely a person in sight.
Instead, robots on wheels carry car frames between stations, where other robots piece the rest of the vehicle together.
Yang Yi says the manufacturing of EVs in China has become "more and more smart". (Foreign Correspondent: Mitchell Woolnough)
Nio's
promotional director Yang Yi said production technology had become so
advanced in China that his company was able to produce a car every
minute.
That pace of development is known across the globe as "China speed".
"So
in this factory there's over 1,200 robots [including] 300 to 400 AGV
[automated guided vehicles] to transport the components," he said.
"In China, that's pretty much the standard now.
"This factory, it's amazing. It's becoming more and more smart."
Electric vehicles being built in the Nio manufacturing plant in Hefei, China. (Foreign Correspondent: Mitchell Woolnough)
At the Nio factory in Hefei an electric vehicle is manufactured every minute. (Foreign Correspondent: Mitchell Woolnough)
As
a result of China's supply chain dominance, foreign car companies have
flocked to the country to learn, develop and build cars there.
Even
European brand Renault, which does not sell cars in China, has set up a
top-level research and development lab in Shanghai to get the China
advantage.
Renault's director
of innovation technology Xiao Xing said the Chinese know-how was helping
them develop cars three times quicker than ever before.
Xiao Xing works at Renault's research lab in Shanghai. (Foreign Correspondent: Angus Llewellyn)
Part
of that, he said, was that China now had "the most mature" supply chain
for EVs in the world, meaning that if a company wanted to design or
build a car they did not need to leave China.
"China is the most competitive market in the world," he said.
"So
you cannot run away, you cannot hide, you need to embrace it. Because
if you don't embrace it, but your competitor embraces it, you will
lose."
Security and trade collision
China's
EV success and the wave of cheap cars flooding overseas markets have
put the country on a collision course with other major manufacturers.
In
recent years, Chinese brands have increasingly looked to overseas
markets to help sustain their profits and offset a slowdown in domestic
spending.
In 2025, China exported about 2.5 million EVs to the rest of the world, double the previous year's figure.
Nearly
1 million of them were sold into the European Union (EU), the world's
second-largest electric-car producing region and the home of major
legacy car brands competing for survival against newer, cheaper Chinese
alternatives.
European leaders
fear the low-cost Chinese EVs, which can match European quality at a
lower price, will hollow out local industries.
But
despite additional EU tariffs of up to 35 per cent being imposed on
Chinese EVs in 2024, Europeans' demand for Chinese cars continued to
grow.
EU leaders are now
threatening additional measures and signalling a possible trade war with
Beijing unless China can rein in its export dominance.
China is edging ahead in the race for global electric vehicle dominance. (ABC News: Mitch Woolnough)
One of the only markets in the world China has not penetrated is the United States.
In
2024, America introduced a 100 per cent tariff on all electric vehicles
imported from China, and in 2025 banned all internet-connected vehicles
from China.
At the time, the
US government said it was safeguarding the future of its manufacturing
industry and responding to security concerns that people's data could be
accessed by China.
Mr Russo said concerns about security were an ongoing issue that China would have to address through diplomacy.
"It's certainly got some data security risks associated with where and how information's being used," he said.
Last year China exported about 2.5 million EVs, double the previous year's figure. (Foreign Correspondent: Mitchell Woolnough)
But, he added, the world's view that China was "collecting data and targeting people with it" was "overblown".
"We shouldn't say lay down and let China control everything. We should compete with it," Mr Russo said.
"The global auto industry shouldn't block China. They should race at the speed of China."
The future is flying
Even
though China's EV industry is dominating the world, the country is
still innovating to keep its position at the top of the pack.
Car
company Nio, which proudly boasts thousands of battery swap stations
where EV drivers can swap over their battery in under five minutes, has
started rolling out the technology internationally.
It is also in discussions to expand its operations to Australia, but the timeline remains unclear.
Smoke was seen rising, near Podolsk in the Moscow Region, near where a Ukrainian drone strike hit an oil facility. (Reuters)
In short:
Ukraine
has launched more than 400 drones at Moscow while Russia has fired a
further salvo of ballistic missiles at Kyiv and attacked a cargo vessel
docking in the Ukrainian city of Odesa.
Russia
is launching more ballistic missiles than it is understood to be
producing, dipping into stockpiles at a time when Ukraine is short of
interceptors.
It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy faces calls to reverse the sacking of his popular defence minister.
Ukraine
fired more than 400 drones toward Moscow in its latest major attack on
the Russian capital, the city's mayor said Monday.
The
blitz came hours after Russia bombarded Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities
with ballistic missiles in a relentless cycle of tit-for-tat strikes
that make a settlement to end Moscow's more than 4-year-old all-out
invasion appear a distant possibility.
Moscow
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the onslaught lasted from late Sunday until
early Monday, local time, with most downed far from the city and 85
intercepted near it.
Moscow
regional Governor Andrei Vorobyov said 10 people were wounded by
Ukrainian drones, while several residential buildings and civilian
infrastructure facilities were damaged.
The
attack started a fire at the Yuzhnye Vrata industrial park, about 30
kilometres south of Moscow, while a Russian news outlet also reported
that an oil depot in Podolsk, about 20 kilometres south of Moscow, was
on fire after being struck.
Recent Ukrainian drone attacks are bringing the conflict closer to home for residents of the Russian capital. (Reuters)
Ukrainian
forces hit logistics facilities and an oil depot in the Moscow region,
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, adding that Kyiv's forces
hit two vessels belonging to Russia's so-called shadow fleet
transporting sanctioned oil and four dry cargo ships in the Black Sea.
A
drone struck a passenger bus in Shebekino in Russia's Belgorod region
bordering Ukraine, killing five people — four women and a boy — and
injuring 23 others, according to acting Gov. Alexander Shuvayev.
It was not possible to independently verify either side's claims.
Russia steps up ballistic missiles
Ukraine's
long-range drone technology has evolved during the war, posing a
problem for Russia, whose huge land mass is hard to protect fully.
Kyiv's forces have aimed especially at Russian oil facilities, causing
fuel shortages and embarrassing Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In May, the Russian Defense Ministry said air defences downed 1,054 Ukrainian drones in a 24-hour period.
In
response, Russia has turned towards greater use of its ballistic
missile stocks, taking advantage of a Ukrainian shortage of
intercepters.
Ballistic
missiles fly faster than the speed of sound and can reach Kyiv in
minutes, giving air defences little time to react and civilians to reach
shelter.
"Russian forces have
launched more ballistic missiles against Ukraine thus far in July than
Russia reportedly produces each month," the Institute for the Study of
War, a Washington-based think tank, said late Sunday.
"Russia
appears to be dipping into its stockpiles to continue increasing the
number of ballistic missiles it launches against Ukraine, as these
missiles have a higher success rate than drones and cruise missiles,"
it noted.
Ukraine's
air force said Russia fired two missiles and 94 long-range drones at
Ukraine overnight. It said air defences jammed or intercepted 81 drones,
while nine drones and a missile caused damage at nine locations.
Ukraine
is testing Russia's air defences with drones, while the Kremlin is
turning to ballistic missiles that are harder to intercept. (Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Russia's Defense Ministry said Monday its forces struck fuel tanks in the southern Ukrainian port of Odesa overnight.
A
Russian strike on Pavlohrad in Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region
injured 13 people, according to military administration head Oleksandr
Hanzha. Eleven people were hospitalised, including a 13-year-old girl,
he added.
Cargo ship attacked
Ukraine's
Sea Ports Authority said a cargo vessel under the flag of the West
African country of Guinea Bissau was hit by Russian forces on Sunday
shortly after it left the port of Odesa, killing 10 of its crew,
including five sailors from Syria.
India's
foreign ministry added that another four of the victims were Indian
nationals, adding that India "condemns such attacks".
Eight people were rescued from the ship, which was carrying Ukrainian corn, it added.
Syria's
General Authority for Borders and Customs said it "strongly condemns
the repeated attacks targeting commercial vessels with Syrian sailors
and crews aboard in Ukrainian ports and nearby maritime areas in the
Black Sea, and the resulting deaths and injuries among Syrian sailors."
The Syrian statement did not mention Russia.
Moscow
has built relations with the new Syrian government since former
President Bashar Assad was ousted in December 2024 in a rebel offensive
led by now-interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa.
Zelenskyy faces protests
Mr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said he would hold "key talks" Monday as he tries to defuse a domestic political crisis, after last week's government reshuffle exposed a deep split between the military's old guard and young innovators over how to fight the war.
The
Ukrainian president needs to reassure Ukrainians that sacrificing
35-year-old Mykhailo Fedorov as defence minister and keeping faith with
60-year-old Soviet-trained Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi as armed forces chief
won't derail the fight against Russia.
Days of street protests in favour of Mr Fedorov and against Mr Syrskyi followed Mr Zelenskyy's reshuffle.
