Former Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov believes that holding elections during war is possible, and most of the problems that arise in this context are solvable.
Former Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov believes that holding elections during war is possible, and most of the problems that arise in this context are solvable.
He said this in a video interview with Channel 24.
One of the main issues that, according to a significant part of society, makes elections impossible during wartime is how to ensure that military personnel vote. According to Fedorov, there are certain possibilities for solving this problem.
«If we talk about the military: we have a little more than a million servicemen, half of whom are not in the troop groups in the front-line regions. Throughout the country, they can vote at regular polling stations as ordinary citizens, not at special polling stations,» Fedorov noted.
According to him, a significant number of military personnel are located in large cities — Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and in these cities there are relatively safe facilities where voting can be held.
«In these cities, there are underground schools, kindergartens are operating, children go to schools and kindergartens, and government bodies are working. And why can’t you vote there in underground premises, if this process will take not one day, for example, but several?» asks Fedorov.
In his opinion, these issues should be worked out with experts.
«Maybe one day, maybe three days. This is a discussion. It’s not written in the Bible. We can shape this together with experts and come to a final decision,» the former Minister of Defense expressed his vision.
Mikhail Fedorov added that the war could last for more than one year, and society needs to keep this in mind.
«If the war lasts not one year, not two, but maybe three or five, we don’t know how long it will last. We need to learn to live with the challenges that exist today, to adapt. State administration cannot lag behind the development of our army,» he emphasized.
Fedorov also recalled that back in December 2025, the president instructed the parliament to develop mechanisms for holding elections during the war, so the discussion on holding elections during the war did not start with his words.
«I’ll tell you more: 60-70% of this legislation has already been written. And specific mechanisms have already been thought out for each category of people. That is, I wasn’t even the first to raise this discussion. It has already been raised and a large number of solutions have been developed,» the former Minister of Defense assured.
For example, in the context of those Ukrainians abroad, he believes it is possible to register Ukrainians for potential voting via online means.
«We need to start doing this not the day before the elections, but in advance. So that people can say online: I am in this country, I will vote here. This way we will understand how many Ukrainians are in which country, how many polling stations we need to open. And then voting for them will be based on sound logic: what financial resources to allocate to these countries so that there are polling stations there. And our partners will finance it 100%, believe me. This is not such a big money compared to how much Ukraine can lose due to corruption,» said Fedorov.
In his opinion, if the voting lasts more than one day, this is normal practice for many countries.
«In a democratic country, there is only one way to renew — these are elections. For this, you need to prepare very well, because this task requires great professionalism,» he concluded.
As dev.ua wrote, former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov is planning a trip to the United States, where he intends to attract funding for new projects in the field of DefenseTech and Ukrainian startups.
