Ukraine’s former Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has called for wartime elections in the biggest internal challenge President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has faced since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.
In a bombshell address posted on YouTube on Tuesday, Fedorov said democracy in Ukraine “cannot be held hostage by Russia”.
He said the country needs to find “a legal, safe and realistic mechanism” to restart its full democratic process “even in the conditions of a long war”. Ukrainian law currently bars elections during wartime, and no major political figure has publicly pushed back on that since the invasion began in 2022.
The 35-year-old Fedorov was a longtime ally of Zelenskyy’s until his unexpected firing from the Defence Ministry in July, just six months after his appointment.
The dismissal sparked protests across the country.
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