This file photo shows Fedorov speaking at a press conference after a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels on June 18.
Ukraine’s popular ex-Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, sacked last month, has called for a move towards elections that have been put off because of the Russian invasion.
Ukraine imposed martial law when Russian forces swept over the border in February 2022, and military rule prohibits holding elections.
“Democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia,” Fedorov said in a video posted to YouTube on Aug. 18.
“We are fighting precisely because we want to remain a free European state.”
Fedorov said Ukraine must find a “legal, safe and realistic mechanism that will allow Ukraine to restore a full democratic process even amidst a prolonged war.”
The ex-defense minister acknowledged the obstacles to holding a vote during the war, including how to ensure soldiers, people living near the front line and millions of Ukrainians abroad can cast ballots.
“This is complex. But complexity does not mean impossibility,” Fedorov added.
He added that the country was facing a “systemic crisis of governance” and is “scared of change,” and pointed to corruption in Ukraine as one of the things hurting the country’s war effort.
Appointed defense minister in January, Fedorov tried to reform a military hit by scandals over corruption, equipment shortages, absenteeism, the treatment of conscripts and an unpopular mobilization drive.
His dismissal in July triggered weeks of protests, piling pressure on President Volodymyr Zelensky who then replaced army chief Oleksandr Syrsky, widely seen as Fedorov’s rival.
He gave no indication of his political plans in the video, though Fedorov has repeatedly stated that he would only return to the government as defense minister.
Zelensky has since appointed Yevgeniy Khmara, a career intelligence official with a low political profile, as acting defense minister pending a vote in parliament.
