WorldUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is under renewed pressure to hold wartime elections, which are not allowed under the country's constitution while marital law is in effect.Elections prohibited during martial law under Ukraine's constitutionGeoff Nixon · CBC News · Posted: Aug 20, 2026 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 16 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.Mykhailo Fedorov, the former defence minister of Ukraine, has called for wartime elections in his country, even though that is not allowed to occur while martial law is in effect — as is the case at present. (Tetiana Dzhafarova/AFP/Getty Images)Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is under renewed pressure to hold wartime elections, even though under the country's constitution they are not allowed while martial law is in effect.Zelenskyy, who was elected to power in 2019, is facing a call to hold elections from Mykhailo Fedorov, the young, popular former defence minister who was recently dismissed from his role in government.Without stipulating a timeline, Fedorov says Ukraine must find "a legal, safe and realistic mechanism that will allow Ukraine to renew its full democratic process even in the conditions of a long war."Some observers say elections are not feasible at this moment, as the country continues to fight an all-out war with Russia that started in February 2022.But the political considerations of the calls for change may be something that Zelenskyy cannot necessarily ignore, whether elections are on the immediate horizon or not.WATCH | Fedorov was once a staunch ally of Zelenskyy:Zelenskyy faces election call from the popular defence minister he fired7 hours ago|Duration 2:05In what many see as Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelenskyy's biggest challenge since the 2022 Russian invasion, ousted defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov has publicly called for a wartime presidential election. Federov's firing last month triggered protests across Ukraine.Tymofiy Mylovanov, a former Ukrainian government minister, said Wednesday in a post on X that Fedorov had made the prospect of elections "a vibrant domestic political question," but had not moved forward the likelihood they would occur soon.He predicted that Zelenskyy, if pressed enough by continued protests, could announce how Ukraine could stage a vote down the road, whether "after the war or under wartime conditions."A popular figurePrior to his dismissal, the 35-year-old Fedorov was publicly seen as a reformer and tech-savvy member of Zelenskyy's government.Born in 1991 — the year that Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union — Fedorov had previously served as Ukraine's minister of digital transformation and been a vocal proponent of the use of drone warfare in the fight against Russia.An image of former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov is seen at a rally held in Kyiv in July. The rally was held to denounce the decision by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to dismiss Fedorov after six months in the post. (Efrem Lukatsky/The Associated Press)Fedorov was named defence minister in January. He was ousted from that role in July in a move that prompted a wave of protests in Ukraine, with calls for Zelenskyy to reverse the decision.Fedorov said he declined offers to take a different position in the government and that he would not accept any position other than the defence job.But Zelenskyy did not relent, naming Yevhenii Khmara to the defence role. The appointment was formalized by Ukrainian lawmakers on Wednesday.Can elections truly be held?Some question whether elections can truly be held at the moment, given the challenges the war with Russia poses.That's the view of Dmytro Koziatynskyi, a veteran combat medic who had called for the original protests to reinstate ​Fedorov in July."I cannot imagine how to technically provide the possibility of a vote to thousands of service personnel currently serving at the front," he wrote on X, in a post in which he wished Khmara success and indicated that the protest is now over. A man walks in a street market in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, which was damaged by a Russian drone strike. (Reuters)Lesia Bidochko, a policy fellow at the European Policy Institute in Kyiv, likewise does not see any realistic procedure for organizing a vote, with millions of Ukrainians living as refugees overseas, displaced within the country, and serving in the military. She believes Fedorov has veered into "the populist trajectory" in calling for elections."Currently, it looks like an elegant ‌way of occupying the opposition space without taking responsibility for the mechanics," she said of Fedorov. WATCH | Why Russia's Wildberries is coming under attack:Why attack 'Russia's Amazon'? | About ThatAugust 4|Duration 1:45Andrew Chang explains why Ukraine is carrying out drone attacks on warehouses owned by Wildberries — Russia's most profitable online retailer.