Zelenskyy raises online elections to enable soldiers to vote
The president described soldiers’ participation as a condition for fair elections. He linked a possible online format to decisions by parliament.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy raised the possibility of considering online elections to enable service members to participate. According to Ukrainska Pravda, he made the remarks in an interview with German broadcaster ZDF on November 5, 2026, stressing that parliament would have to find the necessary solutions.
In the remarks reported by the outlet, Zelenskyy said holding elections without giving soldiers an opportunity to vote would be unfair: during wartime, they risk their lives defending the state. The president linked discussion of an online format specifically to the need to safeguard their voting rights.
According to Ukrainska Pravda’s account, Zelenskyy also said troops at the front oppose elections because there is no technical way to organise voting in the trenches. This is the president’s assessment, not the findings of a survey of service members presented in the report.
The remarks concern a possible option, not an announcement of online voting: Zelenskyy made it conditional on the Verkhovna Rada finding solutions. He did not give an election date or a specific voting mechanism in the statement reported by the outlet.
Earlier, in an ABC News interview published on October 11, 2026, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was ready to organise elections if Russia provided 60 days of a total ceasefire. He stressed then that choosing a leader was up to the Ukrainian people. The October statement concerned security conditions; the current discussion of an online format concerns enabling soldiers to participate.
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