The campaign to replace Zelensky

Last week Ukraine's popular ex-defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov called for wartime elections, in what is widely seen as the biggest challenge to Volodymyr Zelensky's presidency since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.

Zelensky, whose five-year presidential term ended in May 2024, has been under pressure from both Washington and Moscow to hold new elections, but they have been suspended until after the war is over. Fedorov says that corruption is depriving the military of weapons and making it harder for Kyiv to win the war, and that, "democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia”, although he tells the BBC that he had not himself seen the president engage in any corrupt activity.

We speak to Vitaly Shevchenko from BBC Monitoring about where all this could lead.

Producers: Mhairi Mackenzie, Xandra Ellin and Lucy Pawle

Executive producer: James Shield

Mix: Travis Evans

Digital producer: Tom Bage

Senior news editor: China Collins

Photo: Volodymyr Zelensky and Mykhailo Fedorov pose for photos at NATO's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, June 18, 2026. Reuters/Stoyan Nenov