Advisor to the Ukrainian presidential office, Mykhailo Podolya declared this Thursday (20) that the country cannot hold elections due to a legal prohibition. The statement comes amid former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov’s call for new elections in the country, made amid harsh criticism of the current president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Any participant in the political process has the right to speak out, not just Fedorov. But obstacles to the election campaign have increased, […] it is impossible to guarantee the security of elections. And the legal prohibition remains in force,” said Podolyak, in an interview with the Italian newspaper Repubblica.
On Wednesday (19), former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, removed from office by Zelensky in July, published a statement declaring that Ukraine must hold new presidential elections, even during war. He called for the search for a “legal, safe and realistic mechanism” that would allow Ukraine “to resume a full democratic process, even in the midst of the ongoing war.”
Zelensky’s term expired on May 20, 2024. But according to the Ukrainian Constitution, elections, including presidential and parliamentary ones, can be suspended while martial law is declared in the country. The device was activated in Ukraine in February 2022, shortly after the start of the war, and is regularly extended.
In an interview with Brazil in factthe director of the Ukrainian Institute of Politics, Ruslan Bortnik, points out that Fedorov’s statement represents “an attempt to put pressure on the Ukrainian president” and to position himself as a political alternative for the future.
“It is a threat to the current president, given that he decided to dismiss Fedorov, despite all the pressure from the streets and the international community, and refused to reinstate him as Minister of Defense. But what role does this play? I do not rule out the possibility that Fedorov’s statement, being quite unexpected, could be an attempt to position himself as an independent and opposition politician. After all, dissatisfaction with the government is gradually growing in Ukrainian society, and the number of people who support the holding elections even in times of war is increasing,” he stated.
Fedorov’s political move comes as polls show that today, in a possible election, Zelensky would lose in the second round. According to a survey carried out by Centro Soci between July 28 and August 2, Volodymyr Zelensky appears in the lead in a possible first round, with 22.3%, followed closely by the former commander of the Armed Forces and current ambassador to the United Kingdom, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, with 21.4%, while former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov appears in third, with 13.1%.
However, Zelensky would be defeated by the three main opponents in the second round scenarios tested by the poll. Zaluzhnyi would get 66.2% against Zelensky’s 33.8%; Kyrylo Budanov, head of the presidential cabinet, would win 60.3% to 39.7%; and Fedorov by 63.8% to 36.2%.
“The most recent sociological research shows that the current president would lose in the second round to his main opponents in the event of presidential elections. The president’s party, which has a small majority in parliament, has very little chance of winning the elections, and, most likely, the parliamentary coalition will be different. Therefore, the call for elections is, in fact, a call to weaken Zelensky”, analyzes Bortnik.
On July 14, Mykhailo Fedorov, who is now calling for elections, was removed from the position of head of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, in part due to a conflict with Oleksandr Syrsky, then the Commander-in-Chief of the country’s Armed Forces. On July 16, protests began in Ukrainian cities against Fedorov’s resignation from office.
In this scenario, Fedorov is considered the politician with the highest popularity rating in Ukraine. According to political scientist Ruslan Bortnik, the former Defense Minister’s projection is linked to a greater demand from the population for elections in the country.
“Today already about half of the population supports holding elections even in times of war. And Fedorov has now become the most prominent Ukrainian politician publicly defending this holding. This could help him rally around him the protest electorate and the positions of those who currently share the same opinion”, adds the analyst.
Kremlin reaction
Commenting on Ukraine’s internal political movements, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated this Thursday (20) that “the parallel political scenario of the Kiev regime is diverse, and the calls by former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov for elections are just a part of that”.
“The Kiev regime and this political scenario parallel to the Kiev regime are very, very diverse. We see that many there are, naturally, trying to take advantage of the situation. Some try to invoke democracy, democratic norms, while others don’t even try,” he declared.
The special representative of the Russian presidency for Investments and Economic Cooperation with Foreign Countries, Kirill Dmitriev, said that the former Ukrainian Defense Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, defied the Ukrainian president by calling for elections in the country.
In December 2025, United States President Donald Trump made a statement saying that elections should be held in Ukraine. He previously declared that Zelensky was a “dictator”, highlighting the drop in his popularity rating. Kiev responded by declaring itself ready to hold the vote, but only if Washington and its European allies guaranteed the country’s security during the electoral process.
Source: www.brasildefato.com.br
