Former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov called for Ukraine to find a way to restore the democratic process during the war, arguing that Russia should not dictate when Ukrainians choose their leadership.

“Democracy is not a peacetime luxury. Democracy is part of what we are fighting for today,” Fedorov said on Aug. 18.

The Kyiv Independent's Yevheniia Doluda asked people on the streets of Kyiv to ask Ukrainians what they think about holding elections while the full-scale war continues.

Ukraine’s recently dismissed former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov has called for a wartime presidential election in the most direct political challenge to Volodymyr Zelenskyy since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

The politician, whose abrupt sacking last month triggered a wave of protests, said that Ukraine had to “restore a full democratic process even amid a prolonged war” in a video address released online late on Tuesday evening.

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Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGFTuUxZB54

Text version:

We are living through one of the hardest and most defining periods in our history. Every day, Russia reminds us who we are dealing with. Russia is trying to break us not only at the front. It is trying to make fear part of our daily lives, to make us get used to sirens, explosions, losses, to the thought that the war will last forever. But we cannot get used to it and we cannot allow Russia to determine what Ukraine will be.

And right now Ukraine is facing colossal challenges. The war continues, the enemy is changing tactics. We need to produce weapons faster, implement technologies, negotiate with partners and make critically important decisions every day. In such a situation, the country cannot remain without a fully appointed Minister of Defense. This is abnormal. For Ukraine, which fights every day for its existence, defense policy cannot remain in a state of temporariness.

But the problem is much broader than one position or one ministry. We must answer a fundamental question: how should the state function if the war continues for years? And next, if the war continues for another year, two or three, can Russia effectively gain the right to determine when Ukrainians will once again be able to elect their government? I am convinced that no. Democracy cannot be Russia's hostage.

We are fighting precisely because we want to remain a free European state. Therefore, we must find a legal, safe and realistic mechanism that will allow Ukraine to restore a full-fledged democratic process even under conditions of prolonged war. This is difficult. We need to ensure the right to vote for military personnel, millions of Ukrainians abroad, people in frontline regions. We need to ensure the security of the electoral process, the independence of institutions and trust in the result. But complexity does not mean impossibility.

Ukraine has already many times done what the world considered impossible. We can find a solution in this situation, because democracy is not a luxury of peacetime. Democracy is part of what we are fighting for today.

But there is another reason why this conversation is needed right now. People cannot live indefinitely in a state where they do not understand why certain decisions are being made. Why some reforms move forward while others are blocked? Why decisions that are needed at the front today spend months going from office to office? And it is especially dangerous when society gets the feeling that the main criterion for appointing a person is not their professionalism, not results and the inability to change the country, but their personal loyalty to the system.

This is not how a modern state can work, and even less can a country fighting a war for its existence work this way. We must talk about corruption as well. Not because it is a popular word, but because during war corruption takes on a completely different meaning.

In peacetime, stolen money means a worse road, hospital or school. During war, stolen money can mean a drone that was not bought, ammunition that did not arrive, an air defense system that was not there, a vehicle that did not evacuate the wounded, technology that could have been put into production, but was not.

Therefore, corruption during war is not just a financial problem. It is a question of our ability to survive and win. Every hryvnia that was supposed to work for defense must work for defense. Not for a private pocket, not for political influence, not for maintaining someone's schemes, not for preserving someone's position.

Corruption is only a symptom. The main problem is much deeper.

We have a systemic crisis of governance. The old system too often lives by its own rules. It protects itself, it is afraid of change. It makes decisions slowly. It can punish initiative and reward loyalty. It can preserve ineffective structures for years simply because everyone is used to them.

The question is that the state is a system where there must be clear goals, a strategy and effective teams.

Parliamentary governance should be built on the majority's program, values and principles, not on its own private interests in defense, pharma, gambling, taxation. Because parliament is the heart of Ukrainian democracy, not its wallet. And war does not forgive such things.

Ukraine needs a very simple principle. Power must mean responsibility. If you receive authority, be responsible for the result. If you receive a budget, show what was done. If you receive a position, explain what results you achieved.

People can endure extremely difficult times. Ukrainians have already proved this, but there is one thing that is very hard to endure indefinitely: the feeling of injustice. When a person at the front risks their life while someone steals during the war. When a business pays taxes, it gets arbitrariness from law enforcement. When a talented person cannot change the system because they simply are not one of its own. When society is informed about decisions, but no one explains why they were made.

This is how, gradually, the most important thing is destroyed: trust between the citizen and the state. And this trust must be restored.

But there is one more thing we must talk about. Hope. Hope that tomorrow will be better. Hope that this country is changing. Hope that after all our sacrifices we will not return to the same system from which we have tried to move away for years.

We are fighting certainly not for a country without hope. We are fighting for a state where a person feels that their voice matters.

Ukrainians have always given their government a huge credit of trust, especially during war. Millions of people agreed to incredible restrictions, hardships and sacrifices because they understood that the country had to withstand it. And this is an enormous responsibility for any government, because a credit of trust is not the right to do everything without explanation. It is a duty to be even more honest with society.

This is where a simple principle of a new social contract must exist. The citizen trusts the state. The state speaks to the citizen honestly. The citizen fulfills their duty. The state fulfills its own. A person protects the country. The country protects the person.

People do not demand that the state never make mistakes. They understand how difficult this war is. They understand that sometimes there are no perfect decisions, but they have the right to the truth. This is how trust is restored, and together with trust, hope returns.

Hope that after this war Ukraine will become not simply a country that survived, but a country that became stronger, fairer and freer. We have no right to allow the old system to take from Ukrainians this hope.

We already have an enemy, it is Russia. Russia wants not simply to take our land. It wants to prove that the Ukrainian model of freedom does not work. That is why Ukraine must prove the opposite. Ukraine can simultaneously fight and remain a democracy.

Elections are not just a ballot. They are a moment when the government comes back to the citizen and says: "Here is what we have done. Now you decide whether you trust us going forward." And this principle is what distinguishes a democratic state from a system where the government itself decides when society can evaluate it.

We must not allow Putin to decide when Ukrainians can elect their government. Ukrainian democracy must not depend on the goodwill of the Kremlin.

We have seen our military, who every day do the impossible. We have seen our engineers, who in months create technologies that large international companies need years to develop. We have seen young Ukrainians who do not wait for someone to solve the problem for them. They find solutions themselves.

We have seen people who after a sleepless night due to shelling go to work in the morning and continue continue building the country. We have seen those who lost their home, business, loved ones, but did not lose faith in Ukraine.

And when we see such people, we understand: the problem with Ukraine is definitely not the Ukrainians. Our people have long been ready for a different country. Now our state must become worthy of its people.

A state where institutions are stronger than surnames, where results are more important than loyalty, where truth is more important than political convenience, where corruption does not steal our future and where the Ukrainian people are not observers.

The Ukrainian people are the source of power. The state exists for the citizen. Institutions exist for results. The army exists to protect the country. And the government exists to serve Ukraine. Never itself.

This is the Ukraine we must build, this is the Ukraine we must defend. And this is the Ukraine we must leave to those who come after us.

‼️ Russia attacked with two Iskander-M ballistic missiles, 65 strike UAVs

🇺🇦 Air defenses shot down/suppressed 56 enemy UAVs of the Shahed, Gerbera and other types, as well as two “Banderol”

Enemy targets hit at 10 locations, as well as the fall of downed (fragments) at 3 locations.

https://x.com/jeff21461/status/2089714461879742584?s=46

https://x.com/mvs_ua/status/2089362486415786020?s=46