Years after his tenure was set to expire, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy continued to fault Russia over his opposition to an election.
Ahead of celebrating the nation’s 35th Independence Day on Monday, Zelenskyy spoke with reporters behind closed doors on Saturday. As the war with Russia carried on for four and a half years, he expressed his view that “elections in general pose major risks.”
“I believe that if we want to destroy the country, then we can move towards elections during this kind of war,” Politico reported Zelenskyy as saying, insisting a vote “right now would be a tsunami for the state, one that would divide Ukraine.”
“That’s why my strategy is to steer the country toward an ending of the war and to preserve an independent and sovereign state,” added the president.
Zelenskyy’s view marked a direct contrast with a likely rival, former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who was ousted in July. During an address to the people last week, the former official called out his own government while calling for an election to be held.
Fedorov argued, “people cannot endlessly live in a state where they do not understand why certain decisions are made.”
Ukraine’s ousted defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov called for wartime elections in a video address, arguing the nation faced a crisis of governance, in the biggest internal challenge to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy since Russia’s invasion https://t.co/DJRxjcWH6t pic.twitter.com/b72CVNvj4Q
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 19, 2026
The former official further told the BBC over the weekend that the president has “questions to answer” and his country’s “democracy should not be the hostage of” Russian President Vladimir Putin. “If I cannot share my ideas and be open about them with my own society, then what are we fighting for?”
For his part, Zelenskyy said of the ousted minister, “I really had and still have a very positive attitude toward Mykailo. We have been through a lot together. But I believe that he himself goes, or is pushed, into the wrong things.”
It was previously reported in early 2024 that an election would have been scheduled to take place. However, under the Ukrainian constitution, martial law must be suspended to allow for a vote. As an election would have ultimately gauged the Ukrainian people’s appetite for the continued fighting with Russia, Zelenskyy argued months earlier, “Now, in wartime, when there are so many challenges, it is absolutely irresponsible to throw the topic of elections into society in a lighthearted and playful way.”
At the same time, even The New York Times reported on concerns in Ukraine about freedom of the press. In June 2024, the newspaper detailed, “A Ukrainian reporter who revealed that a state news agency tried to bar interviews with opposition politicians said he received a military conscription notification the next day.”
The report went on to state, “Analysts say the government’s efforts to control the media appear to be aimed at crimping positive coverage of the opposition and suppressing negative coverage of the government and the military.”
Meanwhile, amid ongoing efforts to stay on the good side of President Donald Trump, Zelenskyy agreed with the chief executive and told American reporters in December, “Look, I am ready for elections … I personally have the will and readiness to do this.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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