No legal or security prerequisites currently in place for holding elections in Ukraine - Vice PM

This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna, who spoke at a press conference at the European Commission's representative office in Vienna, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Ukrainian legislation prohibits conducting any election processes under martial law conditions. And from a security point of view, this is an extremely difficult task, because every polling station can be under the sights of the Russian Federation. In addition, in Ukraine, in fact, there is no request for elections, because it is ongoing war. There are still many territories under occupation. Rockets are hitting Ukrainian cities. So the physical conditions for holding elections are literally non-existent, including legal restrictions," the government official said.

According to her, at first it is important to focus on things related to the implementation of the Peace Formula and ensuring Ukraine's defense capability, "and only after negotiations on accession (to the EU - ed.) begin will we be able to talk about other democratic processes."

"But the priorities at this particular moment is to survive and to advance the reforms. You know, it's very easy to discuss the elections here in Vienna. But let's imagine we are in the Sumy region, in the same building, voting for the members of parliament and the president, for example, right? And it means that publicly it's announced that there is a voting unit here, meaning that it's a target for the Russian Federation, and that you're coming just to implement your civil duty, knowing that this would be the last journey of your life," Stefanishyna said.

She also recalled that several million Ukrainians remain under occupation, and it is currently impossible to ensure their voting rights.

"But the first things should go first. And the first thing is building air defense, granting security to the occupying Ukrainian territory, implementing that peace formula, and advancing in reforms based on the accession process. So it should be very clear that it is not a political issue of election. First and foremost, it is a security issue," Stefanishyna emphasized.

As reported, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on November 6 that amid wartime, the ideas of holding the elections in 2024 are deemed as impractical.