Zelensky: Elections during the war would 'tear Ukraine apart'

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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday flatly rejected a call by his former defense chief to send the country to the ballot box.

“I believe that during a war like this, elections in general carry significant risks,” Zelenskyy told journalists — including POLITICO — behind closed doors.

A vote “right now would be a tsunami for the state, one that would tear Ukraine apart,” the Ukrainian president said. He added that his strategy is to lead his people “to the end of the war and preserve an independent and sovereign state.”

His remarks come after former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov — ousted from his government role in July following a controversial reshuffle — called for elections earlier this week .

Organizing a vote “safely, legitimately, and democratically” in Ukraine, with the participation of soldiers on the front line and citizens who fled to other countries to escape the war, requires “specific conditions,” Zelenskyy continued. That’s “impossible under the current conditions, when Putin refuses to consider any options for a ceasefire,” he argued.

Fedorov has emerged as a rival to the current president. In a video address Tuesday, he argued that “people cannot endlessly live in a state where they do not understand why certain decisions are made.”

But his appeal has been criticized by both Zelenskyy allies and opposition members: Critics said elections — which are suspended under Ukraine’s martial law, in place since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022 — would only strengthen the Kremlin’s position and sow division.

Fedorov seems undeterred and doubled down in comments to the BBC on Sunday , saying he has a “moral right” to raise the topic of elections. “If I cannot share my ideas and be open about them with my own society, then what are we fighting for?”