Ukrainians Skeptical as Former Defense Minister Pushes for Elections

Filed 1mo ago · Via Foreign Policy · The Buffoon Desk

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Hidden Agenda

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: European Parliament · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov released a video urging elections even during wartime, released the night before parliament confirmed his own replacement and a month after Zelensky removed him from government. He named corruption and cronyism around figures including Arakhamia and Yermak, in what Kyiv read as a direct challenge to the president.

A Kyiv International Institute of Sociology survey found just 15 percent of Ukrainians want elections before the war ends, with most preferring to wait for a ceasefire or peace deal. Zelensky's allies call elections logistically and legally impossible mid-war, while critics like MP Oleksiy Goncharenko say the president sidelines anyone who draws too much attention — Fedorov included.

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✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Nothing says 'principled stand for democracy' like timing it to the week you got demoted. That doesn't make Fedorov wrong about corruption, but the polling suggests most Ukrainians have noticed the war is still happening and would like it to stop before they vote on who mismanaged it.

Source: Read the original at Foreign Policy → Scored: Hidden Agenda · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0