Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has forcefully rejected calls for wartime elections, warning that holding a vote while Russia's invasion continues would function as a "tsunami for the state" that could fracture Ukraine. Speaking at a closed briefing with journalists on Saturday — his first extended press engagement in months — Zelenskyy said the idea was not only impractical but potentially catastrophic. "If we want to destroy the country, then during such a war we can move in the direction of elections," he said, in remarks released publicly on Sunday.
The debate was ignited by Mykhailo Fedorov, the young and popular former defence minister whom Zelenskyy dismissed in mid-July after he reportedly fell out with Ukraine's top military commander. Fedorov, widely credited with modernising Ukraine's armed forces and championing drone warfare, released a video this week calling for the restoration of a democratic electoral process, without detailing how such a vote could be organised. His dismissal had sparked weeks of street protests in several Ukrainian cities, though demonstrations wound down after his replacement was confirmed. In a BBC interview, Fedorov insisted that "democracy should not be the hostage of Putin" and said it was his "moral right" to raise the question — but stopped short of declaring any personal political ambitions.
Zelenskyy pushed back directly. Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, and elections are suspended under that legal framework. Zelenskyy's own five-year presidential term expired in May 2024, a fact critics have noted, though a recent poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that only 15% of Ukrainians believe elections should be held before the war ends. Practical obstacles are considerable: millions of Ukrainian refugees are scattered across Europe, soldiers are deployed along a lengthy front line, and Russian-occupied territories remain beyond any electoral reach. Disinformation risks add another layer of complexity. Zelenskyy said he would be open to elections if Ukraine's allies could establish "specific conditions" under which a vote could be held safely and legitimately — but argued no such plan currently exists.
Zelenskyy also offered his first detailed public account of the rift with Fedorov, suggesting the former minister had overstepped his role by attempting to cover functions belonging to the military. He linked Fedorov to an awkward diplomatic episode involving Starlink satellite communications, saying the Defence Ministry had provided him with inaccurate information that led him to raise the matter directly with US President Donald Trump — a claim that subsequently unravelled. Zelenskyy said he had offered Fedorov four alternative posts in government, all of which were declined. "I really had and still have a very positive attitude toward Mykhailo. We have been through a lot together. But I believe that he himself goes, or is pushed, into the wrong things," he said.
Beyond the political turmoil, Zelenskyy disclosed a serious shortfall in Patriot air-defence interceptor missiles, the primary weapon capable of countering Russian ballistic strikes. Ukraine received 675 such missiles in 2023 but only 364 in 2025, with a further decline expected. Russia, he warned, may seek to conscript an additional 300,000 soldiers after its parliamentary elections in September and is working to expand its ballistic missile production capacity to around 1,300 per year. Ukraine, meanwhile, is pursuing agreements with France and Germany for additional interceptors and is developing alternatives to Starlink communications in partnership with a European country. On the battlefield, Zelenskyy expressed cautious optimism, saying Ukrainian forces had nearly recaptured all of the Dnipropetrovsk region and that territorial gains and losses over the course of the year could reach rough parity by year's end.