World · 19 August 2026
Ukraine's sacked defence minister wants an election despite martial law
Dubetskyi-Ph via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-3.0)
Mykhailo Fedorov, the former Minister of Digital Transformation who briefly served as defence minister and was dismissed from that position last month, uploaded a video on Tuesday asserting that Russia must not be allowed to undermine democracy. Since Russia's full-scale invasion commenced in 2022, Ukraine has been governed by martial law, which entails the suspension of elections. While President Zelensky's five-year tenure concluded in May 2024, the constitution prohibits an election as long as martial law is active.
Reported by BBC · How we write briefs