Only three days in, this has not been a great week for Volodymyr Zelensky. This morning, anti-corruption officials raided the office of Iryna Mudra, his deputy presidential chief of staff, and another senior lawmaker. That came hours after a very popular minister—forced out by Zelensky in July—publicly called for fresh elections despite Ukraine being under martial law.
In an address shared to YouTube on Tuesday evening, former defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov argued that "democracy is not a peacetime luxury" as he hit out at corruption scandals besetting Kyiv, declaring it must find a "legal, safe and realistic" mechanism to hold a vote. He didn’t mention Zelensky by name. He hardly needed to—the entire video was an open challenge to the legitimacy of his government.
When a top political insider, who until recently was a close aide of the president himself, calls for change, it carries a lot of weight. But here, Fedorov may have jumped the gun. The latest polling from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) reveals the overwhelming majority of Ukrainians do not want to hold elections while Russian attacks continue.
Just 15 percent of respondents wanted to press on with elections while the nation is at war. By contrast, well over half (57 percent) say elections must remain postponed until a peace agreement is reached and the war is over. Another quarter (23 percent) would support a vote only after a complete ceasefire is reached, backed by "reliable security guarantees." Nor can the opposition to elections be dismissed simply as loyalty to Zelensky.
Even among Ukrainians who say they completely distrust the president, only 44 percent support a presidential election during active hostilities, versus 50 percent who say a ceasefire or full peace agreement must be secured before Zelensky can be ousted. Among those who "rather distrust" Zelensky, support for immediate elections collapses to 17 percent. The president himself experienced a dip in popularity this summer, but he’s hardly on the ropes.
Dissatisfaction with some of Zelensky’s decisions does not mean the people want to try and replace their wartime leader while Russian ballistic missiles are still landing on Ukrainian cities. Fedorov is betting those two sentiments can be brought together. The polling suggests they can’t—at least not yet.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
