Fedorov said Zelensky offered him to hold elections even before liberation — and revealed why he refused

Former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said that as early as June, before his dismissal, he himself proposed to President Volodymyr Zelensky to hold elections so that he "stops thinking about them." According to the former minister, Zelensky was ready to agree at the time but declined because of the ambassador to the United Kingdom, Valeriy Zaluzhny, who would also be running.

This is stated in the material by Ukrainska Pravda, which spoke with Fedorov himself about his relations with Zelensky, the conflict with Yermak, and his dismissal from the post of defense minister. According to the former minister, the president was ready to hold elections in June, but refused precisely because Zaluzhny would participate.

"I told the president outright that elections need to be held, because then you will stop thinking about them and think about your monument. He asked: what is your interest? I replied: in winning the war," Fedorov said.

According to Fedorov, he believed Zelensky had a chance to be reelected against the backdrop of major strikes on Moscow and positive news from Crimea and Donbas. However, the idea of quick elections in the fall was rejected when not only Zaluzhny but also the head of the President's Office, Kyrylo Budanov, refused to run. When asked if someone suggested financing a political project after the public call to hold elections, the former minister said that "there were many interested parties," but he himself "does not seek partners."

Why the election topic remains on the agenda

Fedorov's statement came amid a protracted public dispute over the possibility of holding elections during the war. Earlier, Fedorov himself publicly urged finding a mechanism to hold them despite the hostilities, while the Office of the President emphasized security risks and the difficulty of organizing full-scale voting under ongoing rocket and drone attacks.

Earlier Informator reported that the ambassador to Britain, Valeriy Zaluzhny, wrote another essay in which he did not name Fedorov but pointed to a lack of strategy in Russia and effectively agreed with the former defense minister's key theses on mobilization and technological alliances.

We also wrote that Fedorov did not appear at the meeting of the parliamentary Temporary Investigation Commission, which is investigating the circumstances around the 'Midas' operation, explaining this by the lack of legal grounds for his summons.