Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said holding elections in Ukraine during wartime would risk dividing the country at a time when Russia is stockpiling ballistic missiles and considering mobilizing an additional 300,000 troops. The Ukrainian president, responding for the first time to a demand made by fired former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, sharply criticized an idea that he said was impractical given that Russia did not appear to have any interest in a ceasefire. “I think that during such a war, elections in general are big risks. Elections right now are a tsunami for the state that will divide Ukraine,” he said, adding that his plan was to end the war and preserve Ukraine as an independent state. Elections have been suspended in Ukraine since martial law was imposed at the start of the war. Large scale invasion by Russia. Zelenskyy’s five-year term ended in May 2024, but until recently there had been little desire in Ukraine to hold a contest while the war continued. That changed when Fedorov, a popular minister who had been dismissed by Zelenskyy a month earlier, called for a new race. It was the most open challenge to Zelenskyy’s authority from inside Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion. Zelenskyy said, according to a transcript of the briefing, that if Ukraine’s allies set “specific conditions” under which elections could be held safely, legitimately and democratically in Ukraine, he would support them. attacks and bombings,” he said. Fedorov, he said, had left his position because he had overstepped his bounds, trying to cover duties pertaining to the army. He was offered four alternative positions in the government, but he turned down all four, the president added. “I really had and still have a very positive attitude toward Mykhailo,” Zelenskyy said. “We have been through a lot together. But I think he himself is going, or being pushed, to do the wrong things.” Russia had an arsenal of between 600 and 630 high-speed ballistic missiles, its most powerful type of weapon, and was trying to build a little more than 100 more a month in the run-up to winter, Zelenskyy said. Its maximum production capacity was 1,300 a year, he added. Ballistic missiles have been used to bomb Ukrainian infrastructure and warehouses and to attack the capital, causing an increase in civilian casualties. There is a shortage of American-made Patriot interceptors, the only weapon that can effectively counter them “I wanted to get 300 Patriot missiles for the winter package. “The request from our air force is 360,” Zelenskyy said. He acknowledged that this was difficult given that only about 600 of the most capable PAC-3 interceptor missiles were produced each year. He said he had reached an agreement with France on at least one SAMP/T air defense system this year, and with Germany on the supply of about 600 PAC-2 and PAC-3 interceptors in 2027-28. reserves: about 5% at 10%, he added. Ukraine was willing to pay and that would mean the country “could get through the winter,” he said, calling on the United States to make what would be “a very significant difference both in protecting lives and diplomatically.” Following a conversation with Zelenskyy on Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he had agreed to strengthen French support for Ukraine, including by sending interceptor missiles, without elaborating. Britain, Russia is trying to gather forces for a renewed effort to capture the rest of the eastern Donetsk province it does not control before the end of the year, although Zelenskyy said he was confident Moscow would fail to capture the area, which mainly comprises the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. The president said he believed Russia would try to recruit another 300,000 troops after Russian parliamentary elections in September. St. Petersburg and other major cities in an effort to regain momentum on the near-stalled front line, he said.
