Holding elections in Ukraine during the war is impossible because polling stations, candidates and media would all become targets for Russian attacks, the head of the country's leading election monitoring group said.
Olga Aivazovska, head of the board of the Opora civil network, told Radio Liberty's Svoboda Live programme that the state cannot guarantee the physical security of a campaign. Her comments follow an August 18 video address by former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who called for a mechanism to restore the democratic process despite the conflict.
Aivazovska said the physical process of an election extends far beyond voting day. She said candidates, political parties, media outlets and monitoring organisations could all become illegal targets for Russia in an effort to destroy the process, discredit it and eliminate key players.
An election would require a sustained ceasefire, she said. A presidential campaign and a second round of voting would take 90 days plus three weeks, and Aivazovska questioned whether Russia would agree to a four month truce without demanding concessions on Ukrainian sovereignty or territorial integrity.
She said it was hard to believe Moscow would guarantee not to use ballistic missiles and drones, including Shahed and FPV models, against the whole territory of Ukraine for that period.
Risk of interference
Even with a prolonged halt to the fighting, Aivazovska warned that Russia could use physical violence, terrorist attacks and other methods to disrupt an election.
She also highlighted the risk of foreign interference through cognitive and information operations. She pointed to recent presidential elections in Romania, where a little known candidate gained significant support in a short period of time.
A disrupted election cycle would create a crisis of legitimacy, Aivazovska said. If the process begins but cannot be concluded with a trusted vote count, or if candidates are physically eliminated, the current government would become illegitimate to issue orders to the defense forces, leaving the country with no new leadership.
She referenced the poisoning of former President Viktor Yushchenko during the 2004 campaign as an example of the physical risks to candidates from a Russian trace. Launching an election cycle that fails would be suicide, she said, meaning the loss of the state.
Fedorov calls for vote
Fedorov argued in his address that democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia. The statement was perceived as a speech by a potential presidential candidate.
He said Ukraine must find a realistic, legal and safe mechanism to hold elections that ensures the voting rights of soldiers, people in frontline areas, and millions of Ukrainians abroad.
He said the process must ensure security, institutional independence and trust in the result.
In April 2026, Volodymyr Zelensky reached seven years in office, beyond the standard five year maximum term for the presidency. Elections are prohibited under the martial law that was declared when Russia launched its full scale invasion on February 24, 2022.
The United States, including President Donald Trump, has repeatedly raised the need for Ukraine to hold elections.
The government in Kyiv maintains that security is the key condition for any vote, as the country faces almost daily bombardment.
The US based Institute for the Study of War said in February that the Kremlin continues to discuss future Ukrainian elections in an effort to promote false claims that the current government is illegitimate, and to insist on controlling Ukrainian politics. The analysts said Moscow continues to signal it will reject any election result that does not produce a pro Russian government.
