The next presidential elections in Russia are in March 2024. The first round of voting is on 17 March. This is a great video posted yesterday from the independent channel 1420, worth watching: (1) Will you vote for Putin in the next elections? 100 Russians. – YouTube.
The next Ukrainian presidential elections were scheduled on 31 March 2024. But Ukraine is under martial law and Ukrainian martial law does not permit elections. The law is here: On the legal regime of the military… | dated 12.05.2015 No 389-VIII (rada.gov.ua). This has been discussed in the press for a while and more recently by Zelenskyy. See Zelenskyy says he wants elections in 2024: billions and observers in trenches needed (yahoo.com) and Zelenskyy ready to run in 2024, open to amending legislation if it is safe enough to hold elections (yahoo.com).
Note that the United States held presidential elections in 1864 during the middle of the American Civil War. See 1864 United States presidential election – Wikipedia. The American Civil War was bloodier than the current war in Ukraine. The U.S. military did vote during the civil war. The confederacy also held elections during the war on 6 November 1861. See: 1861 Confederate States presidential election – Wikipedia.
The U.S. presidential elections are on 5 November 2024. Our campaign seasons now starts really early.
Elections during the American Civil War were more likely to be disrupted by draft riots in the USA rather than by military attacks by the CSA. CSA elections would have been in greater jeopardy from attacks by the USA military if held later in the war (with Gen. Sherman probably not adverse to commandeering ballots and ballot boxes for throwing into the tide once he had marched to the sea). In Ukraine, elections can be disrupted by explosive things flying for long distances through the air!
Still, if fighting for self-determination, there is something to be said on the symbolic front for not allowing a war to deter elections. Also, soldiers voting in the trenches (metaphorically speaking, even when not actually the case) would be self-policing. The problem (not an unsurmountable problem) for Ukraine is how to handle voting by in-country civilians (with the Russian military not being adverse to targeting gatherings of civilians) and voting by refugee civilians. The solution probably will be an IT solution (but an IT solution having to deal with cyber attacks).
As far as not holding elections because that would be unfair to civilians trapped behind enemy lines, that already was the case in the far east of Ukraine and in Crimea.
Seems like there are plenty of reasons for changing election laws in Ukraine so that Ukrainians can vote with their ballots as well as their bullets.