It was an unexpected political attack that seemed to go to the heart of Ukraine’s existence and identity as a modern state – and how it fights for its future.
Ukraine’s popular former defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said this week that it’s time for elections in the war-torn country. The clear implication: he wants change at the top.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has been leading Ukraine through a period of intensifying Russian bombardment – 12 people were reported killed in ballistic missile strikes on Kyiv early on Thursday – but is also facing his most serious internal challenge since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Ukraine is fighting for the right not to be part of Vladimir Putin’s dream of a new Russian empire, but the Kremlin will be watching closely for any sign that discord in domestic politics weakens its will to fight on.
Fedorov’s challenge to Zelensky raises fresh questions about the kind of country Ukraine hopes to be. “The old system lives by its own rules too often,” he said in his video message.
The tech-savvy 35-year-old was credited with the vision that led to Ukraine’s increasing innovation in terms of drone warfare. He was sacked as minister in a reshuffle in July, just six months after his appointment. It brought many Ukrainians, wearied by years of war, to the streets in protest – to demand his reinstatement and other changes.
In the absence of elections – Ukrainian law does not currently allow them to be held in wartime – polls give a sense of public opinion. And they offer a mixed picture for Zelensky.
In June, a Kyiv International Institute of Sociology poll found that 67 per cent of Ukrainians expect the President to be replaced when the war ends. But other polling suggests that if elections were held in wartime, he would remain a strong candidate.
Mykhailo Fedorov, the popular sacked former minister, has called for wartime elections to address Ukraine’s ‘crisis of governance’ (Photo: Mykhailo Fedorov YouTube/AP)Fedorov was not directly critical of Zelensky and did not mention him by name. But as domestic politics continues in wartime, so do domestic problems – and it is up to the leader of the country to show he is tackling them.
In Transparency International’s Global Corruption Index for 2025, Ukraine ranked 104 out of 182 countries. War or no war, corruption is a problem that plagues the country.
Ukraine’s score has shown a gradual improvement over the last decade, but the vast sums involved in wartime procurement inevitably offer opportunities for some to take a cut for themselves. This week, Zelensky sacked a senior aide, with the move thought to be tied to ongoing investigations into money laundering.
The Ukrainian protesters demanding Federov’s return also called for the sacking of General Oleksandr Syrskyi, head of the country’s armed forces. At 61, Syrskyi is from a different generation – old enough that he started his military career in the Soviet Army, when Ukraine was still part of the USSR.
Whether or not the date was chosen to reinforce his words, Fedorov put out his statement on the eve of the 35th anniversary of a hardline coup against the reforming agenda of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. That coup failed, and the Soviet Union collapsed shortly after, with Ukraine breaking away from Russia.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is under increasing pressure at home (Photo: Andrej Isakovic / AFP via Getty Images)Fedorov was born in January 1991, the year those world-changing events unfolded. His generation has no memory of the time the country was ruled from Moscow. But I do.
In August of that year, I was in Kyiv when the country defied the dying Soviet system and declared independence. I watched from the square in front of the Ukrainian parliament building as the flag of Soviet Ukraine was hauled down, and the blue and yellow flag – so familiar today – was hoisted in its place.
It was a milestone in Ukrainian history. The country had decided its future lay beyond Moscow’s control. It is a moment that has stayed with me ever since, for what I, as a young journalist, learnt about the region that was to be such a big part of my professional life.
Ukraine’s decision was never fully accepted by the occupants of the Kremlin. The current war proves that. But as the conflict drags on, Ukraine must look to its future.
“Democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia,” Fedorov said in his statement. His challenge was a reminder that, even in a country at war, domestic politics must continue.
His intervention is a sign that democratic debate is possible in Ukraine – a sign that it is still the country that it has sacrificed so much to become.
Putin – so fond of giving history lessons to others – should remember 1991. The political turbulence of recent days is a reminder of how hard Ukraine will fight for its future.
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