Sacked Ukrainian defence minister calls for presidential election

August 20 ------ Ukraine's popular ex-defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov has called for wartime elections, in what is widely seen as the biggest challenge to Volodymyr Zelensky's presidency since Russia's full-scale invasion four and a half years ago. "Democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia," said Fedorov, 35, in a video posted to YouTube on Tuesday, adding that Ukraine is fighting "precisely because we want to remain a free European state". 

Since the war broke out in 2022 Ukraine has been under martial law, meaning elections are suspended.

Fedorov, who did not mention Zelensky by name in the video, was unexpectedly fired from his role as defence minister last month, just six months after his appointment. Zelensky has not directly responded to the video from Fedorov, whose dismissal sparked protests across the country. But in his own video message late on Wednesday, the Ukrainian president mentioned the tasks the newly confirmed Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara faced, including defending against deadly Russian aerial attacks and expanding Ukraine's "deep-strike capabilities" inside Russia.

Meanwhile, a source in the presidential office told the BBC it was "highly bizarre to plan elections amidst missiles and drones. This demonstrates a complete lack of realism. A number of Ukrainian analysts have also questioned whether it would be possible to properly organise the voting for millions of Ukrainians who have fled the country and also hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the front line.

Zelensky - whose five-year presidential term ended in May 2024 - has been under pressure from both Washington and Moscow to hold new elections. When US President Donald Trump suggested last year that Kyiv was "using war" to avoid a vote, Zelensky said Ukraine was "ready for elections" within 60-90 days if its allies helped guarantee security for them.

Holding a fair and safe vote would present considerable challenges for a country under repeated Russian bombardment and many Ukrainians saw Trump's remarks as reflecting Vladimir Putin's narrative that Zelensky is not a legitimate leader.

In the latest Russian attacks on Wednesday, four people were killed when a drone hit a minibus in the southern city of Kherson. Buses and minibuses in Kherson have been repeatedly targeted in recent months, killing drivers and passengers alike.

In the central city of Zhytomyr, two police officers were killed and another 20 people injured in a Russian drone strike on the regional police headquarters, a local official said. In a separate development, Ukraine's two anti-corruption agencies said they were conducting a special operation targeting current and former MPs as well as an unnamed official in the presidential office.

Source: bbc.com