Sacked Ukrainian defence minister demands wartime elections, challenging Zelensky

Ukraine has lived under martial law since Russia's invasion in February 2022, which means elections have been frozen in place for more than four years. On Tuesday, Mykhailo Fedorov, the 35-year-old former defence minister, posted a video to YouTube that upended the political silence around this fact. "Democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia," he said, arguing that Ukraine is fighting precisely to remain a free European state—and that suspending democratic processes contradicts the very thing the country is defending.

Fedorov was fired from his post in late July, just six months after taking the job. The dismissal was unexpected and sparked protests across the country. While he did not name Zelensky in the video, the challenge was unmistakable: he called for a legal, safe, and realistic mechanism to restore full democratic processes even during a prolonged war. He also spoke plainly about what he saw as a systemic crisis of governance and a country afraid of change, with corruption eating away at the war effort itself.

The tensions that led to his removal appear to have run deep. During his tenure, Fedorov had earned a reputation as a reformer and modernizer. He pushed hard against corruption within the defence ministry, used data to analyze and improve frontline performance, and became known for his focus on high-tech warfare and innovation. Before becoming defence minister, he had served as minister of digital transformation and founded the "IT Army of Ukraine," a volunteer cyber unit that launched attacks against Russian targets in the early days of the invasion. Later, he orchestrated a successful fundraising campaign for drones and introduced a gamification system that awarded Ukrainian military units credits for hitting Russian targets. He even reached out to Elon Musk to stop Russia from using Starlink satellites for drone attacks—a move credited with disrupting Russian operations significantly.

But Fedorov's dismissal was widely understood to stem from tensions with Oleksandr Syrskyi, the army commander-in-chief. Weeks of public pressure eventually led to Syrskyi's replacement as well. Zelensky has since appointed Yevgeniy Khmara, a career intelligence official with little political profile, as acting defence minister. The president also offered Fedorov other positions—deputy prime minister for military innovation among them—but Fedorov refused. He said he would return only as defence minister, a condition that effectively kept him out of government.

Fedorov has given no indication of his own political plans, but his refusal to accept alternative roles and his public call for elections during wartime represent the most significant challenge to Zelensky's leadership since the war began. Zelensky has not yet responded to the video. Meanwhile, the fighting continues. Ukraine has intensified long-range attacks across Russia in recent weeks, launching hundreds of drones at oil refineries and warehouses. On Saturday night, about 600 drones struck Moscow in what regional officials called one of the most massive drone attacks in recent memory. Nine people were killed and 23 injured, including a child. In the latest Russian attacks on Ukraine on Tuesday morning, 17 people were killed. The question of who leads Ukraine's defence ministry—and whether the country can hold elections while at war—now sits at the center of a deepening political crisis.