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Ukraine's ousted defence minister has called for wartime elections in a bombshell speech.
Mykhailo Fedorov argued the nation faced a crisis of governance in the biggest internal challenge to President Zelenksyy since Russia's invasion.
Ukrainian law prohibits holding elections during wartime.
Leader of the Holos Party, Kira Rudik, joins Shelagh Fogarty to react to the unprecedented challenge.
Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp
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0:00
Overnight, the news broke that Ukraine's recently sacked former defence minister
0:05
Mikhail Fedorov, has called for a presidential election, bang in the middle of this war
0:11
in what is really the most direct political challenge to President Vladimir Zelensky
0:16
since the start of the war, of Russia's full-scale invasion anyway, in 2022
0:22
I'm joined by Kyra Rudik, a deputy in the Ukrainian parliament, who is the leader of the Holos party
0:28
Good afternoon to you, Karina. Thank you for joining us. Long time since we've spoken. Good to have you on the program
0:32
Hello, Sheila, and thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure. How do you read this man's intentions
0:37
He says democracy matters even in a wartime. What do you say
0:42
So I worked with Michalov Fedorov for seven years because he was a minister of digital transformation
0:48
and I have lots of respect to him and to what he had achieved
0:52
during his six months as a minister of defence. However, just a month ago, he was saying that it's good that we cannot put democracy on pause
1:02
and Russia cannot strip us of the democracy when there were people outside on the streets chanting his name
1:09
and demanding for him to be returned to the position of the Minister of Defense
1:14
And then yesterday, it became very clear that he's not going to be returned
1:19
and the president appointed a different person, Mr Henny Khmara Then Mr Federer stepped up and said that he calling for elections And we were all honestly surprised and shocked because everybody knows that we cannot conduct
1:41
elections during the martial law, not only according to the constitution, but also according
1:46
to the common sense. And can I ask, if there were to be elections, and it doesn't look at this point
1:54
that there are going to be. But if there were, martial law would have to be lifted, would it
1:58
And if that were the case, what do you say that would do to Ukraine in this war if martial law
2:04
were lifted? So it would depend on what our position would be at the battlefield. And this
2:10
is why we are in this impossible situation where the war is ongoing and we simply cannot lift the
2:18
martial law. But if it happened, then we would have to dismiss our army. We would have to open
2:23
our borders and we would then move forward to conducting elections without actually any security
2:31
guarantees. And having Putin who already said that they have up to 20 million Ukrainians on
2:37
Russia's territory, which is a lie, but that would be his intention to say that. So we would face a
2:43
tremendous challenge in conducting elections in a fair, open, democratic and legitimate way
2:51
and it is impossible and should not be done during the martial law
2:55
There are so many reasons for that starting to how would military who are at the battlefield right now participate in the elections not only in their ability to vote but also in their ability to be voted for
3:09
They are the ones who deserve this chance of executing democracy. So there are so many questions without answers that there was a consensus, I think, starting the beginning of full-scale invasion, that we all put our political ambitions aside and concentrate on one common goal
3:27
You clearly believe this would, if I'm interpreting your words correctly, you believe that to lift martial law, to run an election, would endanger the men and women on the front
3:38
That would definitely endanger men and women at the front, but it would endanger the whole nation and our chance of survival because Putin wouldn't stop for us to conduct elections
3:49
He would definitely be interfering and putting lots of money into propaganda
3:53
We would bring up the political differences that right now are being put on hold
3:58
We would have to figure out on how to really, from the security side, protect people who are running, but then protect people who will be voting
4:07
And right now, honestly, Sheila, when we're having one of the most complicated, hard and harsh winters in front of us
4:16
when every single day is dedicated to building shelters, trying to create alternative sources of energy
4:23
making sure that people who are unable to serve themselves will be moved somewhere where they can get some support So there are so many things like you know to the ground things that we should be working on helping our people that talking about the elections it really really upset and surprised people because this
4:41
is not the thing that we should be thinking on right now. You mentioned opening the borders would
4:46
be a part of lifting martial law. Is one of the fears around that, that lots of fighting age men
4:52
would leave. They have their families who moved to different European states since the beginning
4:59
of full-scale invasion. And I think in the perfect future, we should allow them to unite with their
5:05
families or for the families to be brought back. But it is all very abstract because there is no
5:11
solution in place for ending the war right now. And so we should be concentrated on what we can do
5:18
and that's why people were very concerned. That's why like last week there were more than 10,000 people on the streets
5:26
supporting Minister Fedorov but today when we were voting in the Rada
5:31
there were maybe 50 people protesting near the parliament. Okay, well are you confident this will pass
5:38
That he's had his moment and that's it? Or are you still nervous he might come back for more
5:43
We don't know what his plans are But I'm really calling for, again, what he was openly saying, that we all now should put our ambitions below the goal of our country to survive
5:58
And yesterday's statement was rather the opposite
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