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Election call amid firings
Ukraine’s sacked defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov called for presidential elections in a video posted to YouTube on Tuesday, saying, "Democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia" and that Ukraine is fighting "precisely because we want to remain a free European state".
“"Democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia"”
Fedorov, 35, made the call while Ukraine has been under martial law since the war broke out in 2022, and the BBC reported that a source in the presidential office said it was "highly bizarre to plan elections amidst missiles and drones."
The political pressure intensified as Zelenskyy’s office dismissed deputy head Iryna Mudra, and the BBC said Zelenskyy had asked parliament to confirm acting defence minister Yevhenii Khmara, with MPs overwhelmingly backing Khmara early on Wednesday afternoon.
The same week’s upheaval followed Fedorov’s unexpected firing from his role as defence minister last month, just six months after his appointment, and the BBC linked the dismissal to tensions with army commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.
In parallel, Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies said they were conducting a special operation targeting current and former MPs as well as an unnamed official in the presidential office, while Zelenskyy’s office said Mudra was dismissed amid reports of a raid on her premises.
Anti-graft raids and pushback
Ukraine’s anti-corruption authorities moved against MPs and advisers of Zelenskyy shortly before a key parliamentary vote, and DIE WELT said the special operation was intended to “uncover a criminal association operating under the leadership of a serving and a former member of Ukraine’s parliament,” the NABU and SAP in Kyiv announced.
DIE WELT also reported that Ukrainian media named the deputy head of the presidential office, Iryna Mudra, as the target of investigations, and it said member of the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv Oleksij Hontscharenko said the investigations were specifically directed at Mudra.
In the political fallout, the AP reported that Zelenskyy fired Mudra as investigators named a deputy head of the presidential office among suspects in a money-laundering case, and it said Zelenskyy made no public comment on the investigation but issued a decree dismissing Iryna Mudra as deputy head of the Office of the President.
Fedorov’s election demand continued to draw pushback from protesters, and the BBC quoted Ivan, 24, saying, "elections at this time of war wouldn't be the best thing".
The AP also said investigators identified a group alleged to have laundered 150 million hryvnias ($3.4 million) to pay bail for a defendant in a major graft case last year, and that case involving the state-owned nuclear power company brought the resignations of Ukraine’s justice and energy ministers.
EU hurdles and political risk
The anti-corruption drive is framed as a prerequisite for Ukraine’s desired accession to the European Union, and DIE WELT said the intensified actions against bribery during the war are seen as “one of the key prerequisites for Ukraine’s desired accession to the European Union.”
““one of the key prerequisites for Ukraine’s desired accession to the European Union.””
The AP reported that the European Union has identified deep-seated corruption as one of the major hurdles to Ukraine’s desired membership in the bloc, while also describing how the graft probe threatened to pull Zelenskyy into another political crisis.
Fedorov’s election call, meanwhile, directly challenged the wartime legal barrier, and the AP quoted him saying, “We must find a legal, safe and realistic mechanism that will allow Ukraine to restore a full democratic process even amid a prolonged war,” as Ukraine’s constitution prohibits such a vote under martial law.
The AP said lawmakers approved Zelenskyy’s candidate, Maj. Gen. Yevhenii Khmara, as the new defence minister, a move that effectively closed the door to Fedorov’s return to the post, which he had sought, anytime soon.
As the political disarray unfolded alongside ongoing war pressure, the AP reported that the Russian Defense Ministry said its air defenses overnight intercepted 453 Ukrainian drones over multiple regions, as well as Russian-held Crimea and the Black Sea.
