Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that holding elections during the ongoing war with Russia could split the country and even "destroy" it. He announced this on August 23 in an interview with journalists.
Zelensky's statement came after Ukraine's former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov called for holding elections during wartime. Fedorov was dismissed from his post in July, after which his supporters held protest demonstrations. However, even among those who later supported him, attitudes toward the initiative to hold elections were not uniform.
"If we now want to destroy the country, we can open the way to elections during such a war," Zelensky said.
According to Ukrainian legislation, holding elections is prohibited during martial law. In addition, the security situation in the country, the presence of millions of Ukrainians abroad or in Russian-occupied territories, as well as the fact that many citizens are serving at the front, seriously complicate the organization of the electoral process.
According to Zelensky, holding elections under current conditions could affect Ukraine like a "tsunami" and intensify divisions in society.
At the same time, he said that if Ukraine's international partners guarantee the security of the electoral process, the possibility of holding elections during wartime could be considered. However, so far no such plan has been proposed to Kyiv.
The issue of holding elections in Ukraine is also not uniformly supported among the public. According to the results of a survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology on August 5, 57% of Ukrainians believe that elections should be held only after the cessation of hostilities. Zelensky's level of public support is about 60%.
