FEDOROV CALLS FOR ELECTIONS | And May Have Just Shot Himself in the Foot

For the past month, I have been broadly sympathetic towards Mykhailo Fedorov. Like many, I understood the anger surrounding his removal as Defence Minister, and why people took to the streets during a war — in some of the largest protests I’ve seen in nearly eight years living in Ukraine.

I understood the frustration at the timing of yet another reshuffle while Ukraine is fighting an existential war, particularly at a moment when Ukrainian forces appeared to be regaining the initiative on parts of the battlefield.

Yet look at the reality Ukraine faces right now.

Shaun Pinner@ShaunPinnerUA

This morning, Russian terrorists struck a crowded area in Pechenihy, Kharkiv region, where a post office, shops and a café sit among residential homes. At least 10 people have been killed and eight injured. Two strikes reportedly landed around 50 metres apart, one hitting a

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Russian and North Korean-made ballistic missiles are falling on Ukrainian cities, while the prospect of another major Russian mobilisation involving potentially hundreds of thousands of additional troops looms, raising the possibility of Moscow preparing the manpower for another major offensive later this year.

Against that backdrop, Fedorov’s extraordinary YouTube intervention calling for Ukraine to find a way to hold elections during the war changes the picture considerably, and frankly has shocked many here.

I think there are legitimate questions surrounding his removal, and there are most certainly legitimate questions about Ukraine’s political future and the direction of its government. Those questions are only becoming more pressing as NABU and SAPO pursue investigations involving senior figures linked to the Presidential Office.

None of that means those investigations are connected to Fedorov or even Zelensky, but they form part of an increasingly difficult political backdrop.

And timing matters.

Calling for wartime elections at this particular moment risks turning what had been enormous public sympathy for Fedorov into something very different.

Politically, he may just have shot himself in the foot, or does he know something we don’t?

Fedorov’s address represents the first demand of this kind from a major Ukrainian political figure since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. He spoke of a “systemic crisis of governance”, criticised corruption and institutional resistance to change, and argued that Russia should not effectively be allowed to determine when Ukrainians can elect their government.

There are legitimate arguments within that.

But calling for elections now is something else entirely, and, like so many of those demanding elections in Ukraine, there is remarkably little explanation of how any of this would actually work.