Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has rejected calls to hold an election while fighting with Russia continues, saying a wartime vote would split Ukrainians and “destroy” the country.
“I believe that in a war like this, elections as such are a huge risk. Elections right now are a tsunami for the country that will split Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said. “If we want to destroy the country, then we can move in the direction of elections during these times of war.”
The remarks were made during a wide-ranging briefing with reporters on Saturday and published on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera. They were his first public comments on the question since former Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov called for a wartime poll.
Fedorov, 35, held the defence portfolio for six months before Zelenskiy dismissed him in July, a decision that triggered protests across Ukraine. In a nine-minute video posted to YouTube on Tuesday, he argued that Ukraine’s democracy “cannot be held hostage by Russia.”
“Can Russia actually be entitled to define when Ukrainians can elect their authorities next time? I’m sure it’s not,” Fedorov said, adding that Kyiv faces a “systemic crisis of governance.”
Ada Derana reported that it was the first such demand by a major Ukrainian political figure since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, and that some of those who had campaigned for Fedorov’s reinstatement baulked at his call for a vote. Fedorov has not said explicitly whether he would stand in any future election.
Elections during wartime are prohibited under Ukrainian law, a restriction that had gone unchallenged until Fedorov’s intervention. Analysts cite security risks and the millions of Ukrainians living abroad, under Russian occupation or serving at the front as further obstacles.
Zelenskiy said a wartime election might become possible if Kyiv’s international partners could guarantee security, but that no one has put forward such a plan. “That’s why my strategy is to steer the country toward an ending of the war and to preserve an independent and sovereign state,” he said.
His approval rating has held broadly stable at about 60%. An August 5 poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found 57% of Ukrainians want elections held only after the fighting ends.
