Compilation of images showing the Donbass (Left), destroyed Ukrainian tanks (Center) and a large explosion at night (Right). Photo: Al Mayadeen.
By Dmitri Kovalevich – Oct 28, 2025
Zelensky cancels elections as mandates expire, tightening control under martial law amid war, mass desertions, and rising dissent over government lies and Ukraine’s worsening battlefield losses.
At the end of October 2025, the last branches of elected government in Ukraine will see their mandates expire. Following instructions from Kiev regime president Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian legislature canceled planned elections to take place in late October for mayors and municipal councils. Zelensky’s own five-year electoral mandate and that of Ukraine’s national legislature (Verkhovna Rada) both expired in April 2024.
Ukrainian authorities are placing all responsibility for the election cancellations on Russia, saying a “continuity of power” is needed for the country and that ongoing “Russian aggression” is preventing that from happening. Of note is that no electoral disruptions are taking place in the Russian Federation, even in the ‘new regions’ (as they are called in Russia) of Kherson and Zaporizhzhya, where intense fighting continues.
Ukraine is thus setting quite an example of ‘democracy’ for the world to view and for its Western backers to justify. For decades prior, the dictatorships that Western countries supported in Latin America, Africa, and Asia were also typically canceled when it suited the West, often justified by a claimed ‘red threat’emanating from the resistance to imperialism by the Soviet countries. As Odessa anarchist Vyacheslav Azarov wrote ironically on Telegram on October 8, the formula ‘while we fight for democracy, there will be no democracy’ means that Ukrainians are to be stuck for years to come with an irremovable government devoid of any electoral mandate.
Ukraine’s leaders want nothing to do with any decentralization of powers
Ukraine legislator Alexander Dubinsky, a former party colleague of Zelensky who has been imprisoned since November 2023, awaiting trial for ‘treason’, wrote from prison on October 8 that the electoral mandates of local authorities will expire at the end of October, and it is impossible to extend them by fiat. (Dubinsky’s trial was finally convened in Kiev on October 15 and then postponed until November 12. He stands accused of “information-subversive activities in favor of Russia”.)
Provisions for extensions or alterations of electoral mandates appear nowhere in the Ukrainian constitution, yet Zelensky has been stripping local governments of their powers throughout his term in office. A number of elected mayors and elected local deputies have been removed from office under various pretexts, most often through the use of sanctions and presidential decrees. The reasons for sanctions and decrees are usually not disclosed, under the pretext of ‘guarding military secrecy.’
Local government reform (so-called decentralization) was one of the European Union’s pet initiatives for Ukraine, going back to the ‘Euromaidan’ protest movement of late 2013/early 2014. The protest movement waged street battles in Kiev in favor of a rupture in economic ties to Russia, to be replaced by a subordinate economic status with the European Union. Ever since, ‘decentralization’ has been financed and promoted by the EU and its largest, affiliated governments.
European officials claimed at the time and since that excess centralization of power in Ukraine caused the dissatisfaction behind the ‘Euromaidan’ rebellion and led to the coup in Kiev on February 20/21, 2014, that deposed Ukraine’s elected president and legislature. It is highly ironic that anti-coup protests arose immediately in central and eastern Ukraine, precisely in favor of decentralization of political power in the country (autonomy) for regions seeking it. (Crimeans voted outright on March 15, 2014, to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation because years of bitter experience in struggling for political autonomy (‘decentralization’) had taught them that peaceful decentralization of powers would forever be fiercely opposed by Ukraine’s post-Soviet leaders.
Notwithstanding the Western concerns over ‘excessive centralization’ of government in Ukraine, all tax revenues in the country continue to accrue to Kiev, where any expenditures of the same are decided. This has left virtually nothing to pay for regional and local infrastructure and services. ‘Decentralization reform’ was, indeed, eventually adopted, after a fashion, but was then canceled by Zelensky’s 2022 declaration of martial law. Martial law has allowed his regime to double down on its financial plundering of Ukraine’s regions in favor of power concentration in Kiev.
More than four months ago, on June 8, the executive director of the Association of Ukrainian Cities, Alexander Slobozhan, reported on Telegram that 297 communities in Ukraine were without elected mayors. He said there have been systematic efforts since 2020 to weaken local government authority and surrender to centralized power.
Slobozhan also points to the absence of clear lines of demarcation between military and civilian (i.e. elected) powers in Ukraine. He reminded his readers back then that the European Commission had warned Ukrainian authorities that there would be no admission of the country into membership of the European Union until a clear delineation between such powers was agreed and implemented.
Confrontation between Kiev and elected officials in Odessa
In mid-October, Zelensky stripped the mayor of Odessa, Gennady Trukhanov, of his citizenship and removed him from office. According to Zelensky, Trukhanov ‘may have’ possessed a Russian passport, making him ineligible for office. Photos of the passport as published by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) indicate that it is fake, including that his first name (Gennady) is misspelled. Odessa is the third largest city in Ukraine and its largest port.
The Russian opposition publication Insider (published in Latvia) has reported that the number listed on the passport as published by the SBU does exist but belongs to a woman named Tatyana, a Russian citizen who uses it for travel.
For the central government, suppressing regional elites is not just a fight against potential competitors for office. First and foremost, it is a struggle over dwindling financial flows, including income from smuggling (for which the port of Odessa is infamous). Until now, local authorities have effectively been bribing the President’s Office by transferring sums from local budgets to the central government in excess of legal taxation requirements.
The online publication Strana in Ukraine writes on Telegram on October 14 that American advisors have long been urging that Trukhanov be removed from the post of mayor because they consider him to be linked to organized crime. For his part, Trukhanov has positioned himself as an “important element” of stability for Ukrainian rule in the Odessa region, where pro-Russian sentiments remain strong.
Former head of the Housing Union of Ukraine, Alexander Skubchenko (now living in exile), connects the purge of local government in Odessa with British government plans for the region. He wrote on October 14: “No more local self-government in Odessa; the Brits are taking full control. As you might guess, this has nothing to do with the city’s budgets or the monument to Alexander Pushkin continuing to stand [ultra-nationalists in Ukraine want the prominent statue of the famous Russian poet in the center of the city removed and destroyed]. Instead, it looks like the Brits are preparing for the complete isolation of Transnistria [the region of Moldova that seceded in 1990-91 to remain close to Russia, population 360,000] and for a new war in the region.”
Mayor Trukhanov says he intends to continue performing his duties as mayor until the city council terminates his powers, but Zelensky has appointed a military officer to the position of city head. Thus, a system of ‘dual power’ has effectively emerged there.
The blatant lies and fake news that Zelensky’s team is offering up, including to justify suppression of local self-government, are echoed in the total falsehoods it promotes about the military situation on the front lines. Zelensky traditionally feeds Western sponsors fairy tales that he can defeat Russia if only his regime is given more money and weapons. This is being echoed by lobbyists for the Western military-industrial complex.
Regime lies to cover up the deteriorating military situation
Ukrainian military personnel and deputies have recently been particularly outraged by the lies of the command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and of Zelensky and his office. The two continue to stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the realities of the military situation. Ukrainian military officer and former legislator Ihor Lutsenko, a former legislator and now commander of a UAV (drone) company in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, wrote a resonating comment on October 8, stating that total lies prevail at all levels of the governing regime in Kiev.
“Commanders at various levels are lying. Platoon commanders are lying, company commanders are lying, battalion commanders are lying, brigade commanders are lying. The lies vary in their level and degree of harmfulness,” Lutsenko wrote indignantly. He claims that territories now firmly held by the Russian military continue to be referred to by the Kiev regime as being held by Ukraine. Continued losses of territories to Russia are only reported when all possibilities of recapturing them have been exhausted.
Lutsenko also claims that authorities lie about the numbers of ‘missing in action’, counting soldiers known to be dead as ‘missing’, and they lie about the availability of ammunition and equipment, and the readiness for combat of UAF personnel.
Legislator Maryana Bezuhla of Zelensky’s party/machine is also outraged by the lies at all levels, including those uttered by Zelensky. She does not understand who these lies are aimed at, since the Russian and American militaries rely on their own data, not on suspect figures issued by Zelensky’s regime. “Why lie? Why these lies about the situation on the front lines, spread by the president, by Commander-In-Chief Alexander Syrsky, by the General Staff of the armed forces, and by hand-picked spokespeople? Who are the lies aimed at? The Americans have their own accurate analysis. The Russians even more so, as evidenced, unfortunately, by the fact that they consistently achieve their goals. Why are Ukrainian leaders lying to their own population why?”, Bezuhla asks.
The reality, as reported recently by the publication Ukrainska Pravda, is that the lines of defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are porous due to a lack of personnel. The publication reports that the distance between neighboring units of the UAF along the front lines can be 200 to 300 meters, or 500 to 700. Sometimes, they are as much as one kilometer apart.
“Within the front lines, these are huge distances through which enemy infantry passes,” the publication summarizes. “A more accurate term would be ‘gaps’”, it continues. An officer from one of the brigades in the Pokrovsk district of Donbas region tells journalists at Ukrainska Pravda that some positions are occupied exclusively by shell-shocked and wounded Ukrainian soldiers, who are there only so that their superiors “can content themselves in believing that we still hold such positions there”.
In some cases, according to the Ukrainian military, Russians are “seeping through” Ukrainian lines and directly reaching the positions of drone operators, mortar gunners, and artillerymen, who are typically stationed several kilometers behind a front line.
Desertions continue
One of the most discussed topics in the Ukrainian media of late has been the growing number of deserters from the armed forces, which is cited as the main reason for the formation of gaps on the front line. The Ukrainian army is disintegrating faster than recruiters can fill the ranks, notwithstanding all the coercion and violence being used to round up and conscript male Ukrainians older than 25.
The aforementioned legislator, Mariana Bezuhla, claims there are as many deserters today from the Ukrainian army, at 250,000, as there were in the entire army at the outset of the Russian military intervention in February 2022, some 250,000.
In a comment to the publication Ukrainska Pravda published on October 14, a Ukrainian officer complains that it is not only new recruits who are now deserting, but also and often military personnel with combat experience. “We officially have almost 300,000 deserters. They are trained, and many have combat experience. This is a ready-made army that does not fight but walks away, knowing that they are unlikely to be imprisoned or face other forms of punishment.”
Ukrainian military lawyer Nazar Oleksyuk claims that the number of deserters is much higher than the official figures. According to him, units often do not submit the results of official investigations to the State Bureau of Investigation, saying many commanders have no incentive to report on desertion and absenteeism. Many commanders are known to send their subordinates home in exchange for their bank cards, from which monthly ‘service’ payments are deducted. Some of the absentees are even reported to have ‘carried out’ combat missions… in order for their commanders to earn bonuses.
Ihor Lutsenko said that in September alone, he tallied about 20,000 cases of desertion. In reality, he said, the numbers are even higher. Earlier, legislator Roman Kostenko counted 16,000-19,000 people each month choosing life and saying goodbye to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
In early October, the President of the Russian Federation announced that from January to August, about 150,000 people had deserted from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Two weeks later, many Ukrainian legislators and journalists had confirmed these figures in their own words.
Due to the increase in desertions and the number of gaps on the front line, Ukrainian political and military officials are once again talking about lowering the age of military conscription from 25. But Oleg Petrenko, chairman of the Third Army Corps Staff Fund, recently told a radio interview that in that case, the number of deserters will only increase. “What is the point of mobilizing another two million? In a week, 1.8 million of them will desert. We already have hundreds of thousands of deserters. What next? Put them all in prison? We don’t have enough prison space to hold them all,” Petrenko said.
In this situation, it is critically important for Zelensky and his lobbyists in the West to keep the U.S. government deeply engaged in the conflict. They worry and complain about Donald Trump being ‘distracted’ as he stirs up new conflicts in Venezuela, the Middle East, and Asia. Strana reported on October 15 that Zelensky’s main task now is to “turn Biden’s war into Trump’s war”.
“The idea that Ukraine would benefit from an escalation in relations between Russia and the West, and even a direct military confrontation between them, is already being ‘pumped up’ by some Ukrainian publicists,” Strana wrote.
It would seem that Zelensky is partly succeeding in this task. On the eve of Zelensky’s latest visit to Washington on October 17, the U.S. president stated that he expects Ukraine was going to go on the offensive and “we’ll make a determination on that”.
Trump’s words once again emphasize that Ukraine’s ‘independence’ is today a fiction. It turns out that the fate of Ukraine and the fate of thousands of Ukrainians who may die should a new offensive be attempted depend entirely on the whims of a U.S. president.
Dmitri Kovalevich
Dmitri Kovalevich is a Ukrainian Communist, member of the organization Borotba. He is the special correspondent in Ukraine for Al Mayadeen English.
