{"id":868805,"date":"2026-08-23T18:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T18:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/868805\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T18:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T18:18:11","slug":"zelenskyy-says-wartime-elections-could-destroy-ukraine-russia-ukraine-war-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/868805\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelenskyy says wartime elections could \u2018destroy\u2019 Ukraine | Russia-Ukraine war News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected his ex-defence chief\u2019s calls<\/a> for a wartime election, calling the prospect a \u201chuge risk\u201d amid the more than four-year war with Russia.<\/p>\n

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

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy rejected the call during\u00a0a wide-ranging briefing with reporters on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d the president said in comments published on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want to destroy the country, then we can move in the direction of elections during these times of war,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old Fedorov \u2013 a popular figure in Ukraine \u2013 held his post for just six months until Zelenskyy fired him in July, prompting protests across the country.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, he posted an explosive nine-minute video on YouTube claiming that Ukraine\u2019s democracy \u201ccannot be held hostage by Russia\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan Russia actually be entitled to define when Ukrainians can elect their authorities next time? I\u2019m sure it\u2019s not,\u201d he said, adding that Kyiv faces a \u201csystemic crisis of governance\u201d.<\/p>\n

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

Kyiv tackles missile launchers, Starlink<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy\u2019s domestic political crisis is playing out as his government seeks more ways to curtail Moscow\u2019s deadly air strikes.<\/p>\n

Overnight Russian strikes in the eastern Donetsk region killed two people and wounded two others on Sunday, Ukraine\u2019s emergency services said on Telegram. At least 141 private homes sustained damage in the attack.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 which effectively can only be destroyed by US-designed Patriot systems.<\/p>\n

Ukraine has received just 264 Patriot missiles in 2026, down from 364 in 2025 and 675 in 2023, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen our antiballistic missiles are minimised \u2013 here is another tactic \u2026 hunting their nearby locations from which ballistic missiles are launched,\u201d Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n

Ukraine is seeking to produce<\/a> Patriot missiles domestically after receiving political blessing<\/a> from United States President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s alternative, developed \u201ctogether with the Chinese\u201d, is expected to be operational by December, Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n

He added that Ukraine would not \u201cjust sit and wait for Russia and China\u201d and was \u201cimplementing a similar project with a European country\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"FILEA Ukrainian serviceman launches a drone towards Russian troops [File: Sofiia Gatilova\/Reuters]Funding gap<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Ukraine needs at least $8bn for \u201ca normal start\u201d to 2027, he said, in addition to about $20bn more for other spending such as military salaries and payments to families of the dead.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u2060Norway 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected his ex-defence chief\u2019s calls for a wartime election, calling the prospect a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3456,43,44,22373,41,39,42,40,10612],"class_list":["post-868805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-europe","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}