Zelenskyy rejects wartime elections as threat to Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected calls for elections during the war with Russia, warning that a vote now would pose a “huge risk” and could divide the country at a moment of national danger.

“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,” Zelenskyy said in remarks published Sunday after a briefing with reporters. “If we want to destroy the country, then we can move in the direction of elections during these times of war,” he added, according to Al Jazeera.

The comments were a direct response to former Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who posted a nine-minute video on YouTube on Tuesday calling for Ukraine to find a way to hold elections despite the war. Ukrainian law bans elections under martial law, which Zelenskyy imposed after Russian forces invaded in February 2022.

Fedorov said “democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia” and urged the creation of a “legal, safe and realistic mechanism that will allow Ukraine to restore a full democratic process even amidst a prolonged war.”

“Can Russia actually be entitled to define when Ukrainians can elect their authorities next time? I’m sure it’s not,” he said, according to Al Jazeera. “We are fighting precisely because we want to remain a free European state,” he added, according to CBS News.

Fedorov, 35, was fired in July after six months in the defence post. CBS News reported that Zelenskyy cited an unsolvable feud between Fedorov and Ukraine’s top general, Oleksandr Syrskyi. His dismissal prompted weeks of protests by thousands of people across the country, with demonstrators criticizing the removal of a widely respected minister.

The call for elections has been widely seen as the largest public challenge to Zelenskyy’s authority since the start of the war. Fedorov has not said whether he has political ambitions of his own.

In an interview aired Sunday by the BBC, Fedorov said Zelenskyy had “questions to answer” about alleged corruption in his government, citing a money laundering investigation announced last week. He also said Ukrainians should not be afraid to discuss elections during wartime.

“If I cannot share my ideas and be open about them with my own society, then what are we fighting for,” Fedorov told the BBC.

Al Jazeera reported that experts say a wartime election would be practically impossible because of logistical and safety challenges, and that most Ukrainians agree with that assessment.

The political dispute comes as Ukraine faces continued Russian attacks and rising pressure on its air defences. Ukraine’s emergency services said Russian strikes in the eastern Donetsk region killed two people and wounded two others on Sunday, damaging at least 141 private homes. In Kharkiv, a drone attack wounded eight people, including a child, and burned at least two residential buildings. In the Odesa region, a Russian drone hit a passenger train from Zhytomyr to Odesa, the Kyiv Independent reported, citing Ukrainian Railways CEO Oleksandr Pertsovskyi. No casualties were reported.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine is focusing on striking Russian ballistic missile launchers as Moscow increases its missile use. He said Ukraine received 264 Patriot missiles in 2026, down from 364 in 2025 and 675 in 2023.

“When our antiballistic missiles are minimised – here is another tactic … hunting their nearby locations from which ballistic missiles are launched,” he said.

Zelenskyy also said Ukraine faces a $27 billion defence funding gap this year and needs at least $8 billion for “a normal start” to 2027, plus about $20 billion more for military salaries and payments to families of the dead. Norway said Sunday it would provide 85 billion crowns, or $9.2 billion, to Kyiv for the 2027 fiscal year.