Fedorov challenges Zelenskyy with wartime election call
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- Mykhailo Fedorov called for a presidential election in a nine-minute YouTube video on Tuesday, asking 'how should a state function if the war has lasted for years?' and arguing 'democracy can't be Russia's hostage.'
- Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Fedorov as defence minister in July after a deepening falling-out with top general Oleksandr Syrskii; Fedorov has since refused a presidential-aide-for-reforms offer and claims to have turned down a project with Palantir Technologies.
- A late-July Kyiv International Institute of Sociology poll shows Fedorov as Ukraine's second-most-trusted potential president at 63%, behind former general Valerii Zaluzhnyi (66%) and ahead of Zelenskyy (56%).
- Ukraine's constitution directly bans any vote during the war, and Kyiv-Mohyla Academy professor Olexiy Haran said a 'stable truce' of at least six months is needed before elections become feasible.
- Former foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba publicly backed Fedorov, arguing that elections 'after war will not be more civilised, than during it' and warning the war could last another three years.
- Kyiv-based analyst Igar Tyshkevych told Al Jazeera that Zelenskyy's Servant of the People party is 'largely dysfunctional,' with close allies mired in corruption scandals and the president having 'run out of effective outsiders' for cabinet roles.
Why it matters: Fedorov's election demand crystallizes a political crisis beneath the military one: Zelenskyy's once-sweeping mandate is eroding as his party collapses into dysfunction and scandal, yet the constitution and daily Russian strikes make any vote impossible. With Fedorov polling 63% to Zelenskyy's 56%, the pressure is no longer just rhetorical — it exposes a legitimacy gap that no cabinet reshuffle can paper over.
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