Zelenskyy says wartime elections could ‘destroy’ Ukraine

The embattled Ukrainian president slams Mykhailo Fedorov’s idea as a ‘tsunami’ that would ‘split’ the country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected his ex-defence chief’s calls for a wartime election, calling the prospect a “huge risk” amid the more than four-year war with Russia.

Ukrainian law bans elections during wartime, a measure that had gone unchallenged until former Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov made the first public demand for a vote earlier this week.

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Zelenskyy rejected the call during a wide-ranging briefing with reporters on Saturday.

“I believe that in a war like this, elections as such are a huge risk. Elections right now are a tsunami for the country that will split Ukraine,” the president said in comments published on Sunday.

“If we want to destroy the country, then we can move in the direction of elections during these times of war,” he added.

The 35-year-old Fedorov – a popular figure in Ukraine – held his post for just six months until Zelenskyy fired him in July, prompting protests across the country.

On Tuesday, he posted an explosive nine-minute video on YouTube claiming that Ukraine’s democracy “cannot be held hostage by Russia”.

“Can Russia actually be entitled to define when Ukrainians can elect their authorities next time? I’m sure it’s not,” he said, adding that Kyiv faces a “systemic crisis of governance”.

Experts have told Al Jazeera, however, that any wartime election would be practically impossible amid logistical and safety challenges, a reality that most Ukrainians agree with.

Kyiv tackles missile launchers, Starlink

Zelenskyy’s domestic political crisis is playing out as his government seeks more ways to curtail Moscow’s deadly air strikes.

Overnight Russian strikes in the eastern Donetsk region killed two people and wounded two others on Sunday, Ukraine’s emergency services said on Telegram. At least 141 private homes sustained damage in the attack.

Another eight people, including a child, were wounded in a drone attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv that burned at least two residential buildings, the service said.

Meanwhile in the Odesa region, a Russian drone hit a passenger train travelling from Zhytomyr to Odesa, the Kyiv Independent reported, citing Ukrainian Railways CEO Oleksandr Pertsovskyi. No casualties were reported.

Amid the attacks, Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Ukraine is especially focused on hitting Russian ballistic launchers as Moscow ramps up its use of missiles – which effectively can only be destroyed by US-designed Patriot systems.

Ukraine has received just 264 Patriot missiles in 2026, down from 364 in 2025 and 675 in 2023, he said.

“When our antiballistic missiles are minimised – here is another tactic … hunting their nearby locations from which ballistic missiles are launched,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine is seeking to produce Patriot missiles domestically after receiving political blessing from United States President Donald Trump.

The Ukrainian president also said Moscow and Kyiv are building their own versions of Starlink, the satellite system used for battlefield communications that is controlled by US tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Russia’s alternative, developed “together with the Chinese”, is expected to be operational by December, Zelenskyy said.

He added that Ukraine would not “just sit and wait for Russia and China” and was “implementing a similar project with a European country”.

A Ukrainian serviceman launches a drone towards Russian troops [File: Sofiia Gatilova/Reuters]

Funding gap

Ukraine’s wartime efforts may be hampered by a $27bn defence funding gap this year, Zelenskyy said, following defence spending that was higher than expected in the first half of 2026.

Ukraine needs at least $8bn for “a normal start” to 2027, he said, in addition to about $20bn more for other spending such as military salaries and payments to families of the dead.

Ukraine has reached an agreement with France for at least one SAMP/T air defence system this year, Zelenskyy said, and with Germany on the supply of about 600 PAC-2 and PAC-3 interceptors through 2028.

⁠Norway said on Sunday it would give 85 billion crowns ($9.2bn) to Kyiv for the 2027 fiscal year, in line with what it provided in 2026.