Zelenskyy rejects election call from fired defence minister

{"text":[[{"start":6.25,"text":"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has sharply rejected calls from his former defence minister for the country to hold wartime elections, as he moved to reassert authority after weeks of political turmoil."}],[{"start":19.45,"text":"Speaking to journalists in Kyiv’s presidential office, Zelenskyy said elections in the midst of Russia’s war would be a “tsunami for the state” that would “split Ukraine apart”."}],[{"start":29.7,"text":"“That’s why my strategy is to bring the country through to the end of the war, and to preserve an independent and sovereign state,” he said in comments made public on Sunday."}],[{"start":39.65,"text":"The rebuke is Zelenskyy’s first response to a nine-minute video address released on Tuesday by Mykhailo Fedorov, a longtime ally who the president sacked as defence minister last month."}],[{"start":51.25,"text":"In the video, Fedorov laid down a direct challenge to Zelenskyy with a blistering denunciation of corruption within the state and a call for elections."}],[{"start":59.25,"text":"Martial law, which was initiated in the first hours of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, has suspended all elections in Ukraine."}],[{"start":67.25,"text":"That suspension has received broad support. Civil society representatives and state officials have warned it would be an immense challenge to hold legitimate elections amid an active war in which missiles and drones regularly hit cities hundreds of kilometres from the front line, while millions of Ukrainians live under Russian occupation."}],[{"start":86.2,"text":"Kyiv also lacks mechanisms to enable voting by soldiers near the front line or the millions of Ukrainians who fled abroad as a result of the conflict."}],[{"start":94.75,"text":"Fedorov’s ousting six months after his appointment sparked outrage among parts of Ukraine’s civil society and the military, triggering rare wartime protests calling for Fedorov’s reinstatement and the dismissal of top commander Oleksandr Syrsky, who was fired a week after Fedorov."}],[{"start":111.15,"text":"Fedorov — who served as digital transformation minister before taking over defence — had been praised for turbocharging Ukraine’s drone production and pushing forward tech-enabled warfare. That helped Kyiv to intensify long-range strikes on Russian oil facilities and begin a campaign of attacks on a crucial logistical artery to Crimea this spring."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":132.6,"text":"But his attempt to break the consensus on the impossibility of wartime elections was rejected even by his supporters. Dmytro Koziatynskyi — a former combat medic who called for the first public protests in support of Fedorov — wrote on Wednesday that he viewed the idea of elections in wartime “negatively”, and called an end to the protests."}],[{"start":154.04999999999998,"text":"Some 57 per cent of Ukrainians believe elections can only be held after a peace agreement and complete end to the war, according to a poll released in early August by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology."}],[{"start":167.04999999999998,"text":"Yevhenii Khmara, the former commander of an elite unit within Ukraine’s security service (SBU), was confirmed by parliament as the new defence minister a day after Fedorov made his election call."}],[{"start":178.74999999999997,"text":"Fedorov said his dismissal had resulted from a rift with Syrsky and resistance to attempts to clean up corruption in the military. "}],[{"start":186.39999999999998,"text":"As he spoke with journalists on Saturday, the Ukrainian president did not comment on the corruption claims but accused Fedorov of overstepping his responsibilities as defence minister."}],[{"start":197.24999999999997,"text":"Zelenskyy’s political woes were compounded this month by a new corruption investigation into presidential officials. Anti-corruption authorities said they had uncovered an alleged scheme to launder $3.4mn through a state-owned bank to post bail for Zelenskyy’s ex-energy minister Herman Halushchenko, who resigned amid a major corruption investigation last year. "}],[{"start":219.99999999999997,"text":"Zelenskyy on Wednesday fired a top aide who was targeted by the raids."}],[{"start":225.24999999999997,"text":"The internal turmoil also came as both Russia and Ukraine intensified strikes on infrastructure far from the frontline. Russian drones killed at least 16 civilians on Friday in a double-tap attack on a shopping mall in Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, Zelenskyy’s native city."}],[{"start":241.64999999999998,"text":"Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Ukraine’s forces had requested 360 interceptor missiles to supply US-made Patriot anti-air systems for the winter, but hoped to ultimately receive 300. A shortage of one of the only weapons able to reliably shoot down Russian ballistic missiles has allowed Moscow to hit targets across the country this summer."}],[{"start":262.54999999999995,"text":"He said the threat of ballistic missile strikes and the funding of the war effort were the country’s two “major challenges”, adding that the defence ministry faced a $27bn deficit this year after money earmarked for the second part of the year was allocated to drone production in the first months."}],[{"start":280.15,"text":"The Ukrainian president said Kyiv had attempted to negotiate through third parties a ceasefire on long-range strikes, in which both sides would refrain from hitting ships carrying agricultural exports in the Black Sea. “But I know Russia isn’t ready for this,” he said."}],[{"start":294.34999999999997,"text":"In an interview with state television broadcast on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected ceasefire ideas sent by Ukraine through back channels, which he called “sometimes exotic in nature and unacceptable”. "}],[{"start":308.49999999999994,"text":"He said attacks on Ukrainian cities would continue and accused Ukraine of “open[ing] Pandora’s box” with its own strikes on Russian infrastructure."}],[{"start":324.19999999999993,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787534871_2579.mp3"}