{"id":30148,"date":"2026-08-18T20:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T20:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/30148\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T20:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T20:06:08","slug":"ukraines-former-defence-minister-calls-for-wartime-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/30148\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine\u2019s former defence minister calls for wartime elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Ukraine’s then-Minister of Defence Mykhailo Fedorov speaks at a joint news conference in Kyiv on July 1.Alina Smutko\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s recently ousted defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov called for wartime elections in a bombshell address on Tuesday evening, stating that the wartime nation<\/a> faced a crisis of governance, in the biggest internal challenge to President Volodymyr Zelensky since 2022.<\/p>\n

Fedorov\u2019s call, delivered in a video address posted on YouTube, is the first such demand by a major Ukrainian political figure since the beginning of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion in 2022. The law in Ukraine prohibits the holding of elections during wartime.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old Fedorov was a longtime ally of Zelensky\u2019s until his unexpected firing from the defence ministry in July, just six months after he had been appointed, vowing sweeping reforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocracy cannot be held hostage by Russia,\u201d Fedorov said. \u201cWe must find a legal, safe and realistic mechanism which will allow Ukraine to renew its full democratic process even in the conditions of a long war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukraine aims drone blitz at Moscow, while Russia strikes Ukrainian village<\/a><\/p>\n

In what appeared to be an open challenge to Zelensky, Fedorov said that Ukraine faced a \u201csystemic crisis of governance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe old system lives by its own rules too often. It protects itself. It is scared of change,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Without naming names, Fedorov hit out at official corruption, which he said hurt Ukraine\u2019s war effort. The ex-minister recently said he believed that his reform of the defence ministry\u2019s procurement processes, responsible for purchasing billions of dollars of equipment, contributed to his sacking.<\/p>\n

Zelensky\u2019s office had no immediate comment on Federov\u2019s statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Ukraine’s then-Minister of Defence Mykhailo Fedorov speaks at a joint news conference in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[273,255,274,247,245,275,272,244,262,263,258,246,243,268,270,267,261,253,286,248,249,260,256,257,251,276,252,281,282,284,279,283,277,280,250,265,266,79,264,278,254,269,271,259,85,81,285],"class_list":["post-30148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}