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Ousted defence minister presses for a wartime vote
August 19, 2026
Mykhailo Fedorov, dismissed as Ukraine's defence minister in July, called for wartime elections in a video address on Tuesday, saying governance is in crisis.
CNN reports that Mykhailo Fedorov, ousted from the Defence Ministry in July, used an address on Tuesday to call for wartime elections and to argue that Ukraine faces a crisis of governance, the sharpest challenge to President Volodymyr Zelensky from inside his own camp since Russia invaded. CNBC reports the remarks ran more than nine minutes on YouTube and never named the president. BBC reports Fedorov spoke of a "systemic crisis of governance" and of a country "scared of change", and that he called for "a state where institutions are stronger than names". CNN also reports that Fedorov, 35, was a longtime ally of Zelensky and the only figure from the 2019 cabinet still serving until his removal, and that he has said his overhaul of ministry procurement, which buys billions of dollars of equipment, contributed to his sacking. The New York Times ties the address to a hardened break with Zelensky.
The outlets agree on the legal setting. BBC reports martial law has been in force since the 2022 invasion and that elections are suspended under it, and CNBC reports Ukrainian law bars a vote in wartime. CNBC reports Fedorov spoke hours after Zelensky asked parliament to confirm Yevhen Khmara as defence minister, a move that shuts off a return to the job, and CNN, BBC and The New York Times carry the same sequence. BBC reports that Zelensky's office announced later that day the dismissal of its deputy head, Iryna Mudra, and that Ukraine's two anti-corruption agencies said they were running a special operation aimed at current and former MPs and at an unnamed official in the presidential office. The election question already had a history: BBC reports that after Trump suggested last year that Kyiv was "using war" to avoid a vote, Zelensky said Ukraine was "ready for elections" within 60 to 90 days if allies helped guarantee security for them.
The accounts diverge on why Fedorov lost the ministry. One holds that the president put the dismissal down to Fedorov's inability to work with the armed forces chief, Syrskyi, and that Syrskyi was fired himself soon afterwards under public pressure; a competing account contradicts that sequence. The split decides how the address reads, whether the removal was a personal falling out or something the stated reason does not cover. CNN, CNBC, BBC and The New York Times settle the substance of what Fedorov said, the bar on voting during the war, and the successor now before parliament. The reason he was pushed out stays unsettled.
Still developing
The reason for Fedorov's removal from the Defence Ministry is unresolved across the accounts, and BBC reports he has not stated an intention to run against Zelensky. CNBC reports it is awaiting a response from Ukraine's Foreign Ministry.