"Elections during the war will tear the country apart from within" — politicians and activists reacted to Mykhailo Fedorov's statement

Members of parliament, activists, and opinion leaders reacted ambiguously to Mykhailo Fedorov’s statement yesterday regarding the need to hold elections during wartime. 

Yes, MP Zheleznyak conducted a poll on support for parliamentary and presidential elections during wartime and answered it himself: "I’ll immediately state my position: no (presidential elections) and no (Verkhovna Rada elections). The latter is unrealistic, at least because of the Constitution."

According to another MP from "European Solidarity," Mykola Kniazhytskyi, elections during wartime would only split society: "The demand to hold elections regularly appears in Russian scenarios of the so-called 'peaceful settlement.' The reason is obvious: the Kremlin is counting on an election campaign during the war aggravating internal conflicts, turning Ukrainians against one another, and weakening the state from within," the deputy wrote.

As one of the protest organizers, Dmytro Koziatynskyi, stated earlier, he called claims that Fedorov was considering elections disinformation.

"We are in a full-scale war; elections in Ukraine are impossible. So talking now about elections, calculating some ratings, political campaigning... It looks so ridiculous that I cannot imagine how anyone could even think about this now," he emphasized.

For his part, Fedorov’s adviser Serhii Sternenko spoke categorically against elections during martial law

"Elections are unacceptable in any form as long as the full-scale aggression continues. This will tear the country apart from within," he wrote.