President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine is “ready for elections” after US President Donald Trump said Kyiv was “using war” to prevent them.
Zelensky’s five-year presidency was set to conclude in May 2024, but Ukraine’s martial law after Russia’s invasion has banned elections.
Zelensky told reporters he will request recommendations to change the law after Trump’s controversial interview with Politico.
If the US and its allies guarantee vote security, elections may be held in 60 to 90 days, he added.
“I’m asking now, and I’m stating this openly, for the US to help me, perhaps together with our European colleagues, to ensure security for the elections,” he said.
“I believe that elections in Ukraine are a matter for Ukrainians, not foreigners. Respecting our partners…” Zelensky remarked.
“I’ve heard hints that we’re clinging to power, or that I personally am clinging to the presidency,” he said, “that’s why the war isn’t ending.” “Frankly, a completely unreasonable narrative,” he said.
Zelensky won in 2019 with over 73% of the vote.
Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, electoral discussions have garnered attention. Trump has maintained Russia’s assertion that Zelensky is an illegitimate leader and that a ceasefire deal requires new elections.
“They talk about democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore,” the US president told Politico.
Wartime elections have significant practical challenges.
Frontline soldiers may need leave to vote. The UN estimates 5.7 million Ukrainians residing abroad due to the conflict. Complex security is required in any ballot.
A Ukrainian opposition MP told the BBC that a fair vote would include frontline soldiers.
Golos’ Lesia Vasylenko told BBC World Service’s Newsday that “elections are never possible in wartime,” referring to the UK’s ban on elections during World War II.
Opposition European Solidarity MP Oleksiy Goncharenko said, “I am completely against the idea, I can’t even understand why Zelensky would say it.”
“It is completely impossible,” he remarked, adding that elections require arguments and campaigning. “Maybe Zelensky sees it as an opportunity to hold quasi-elections that will be favourable to him, while he controls the media and his opponents are likely not ready.”
Ukrainian parliament’s foreign policy committee chairman Oleksandr Merezhko said Zelensky faces minimal domestic political pressure to call elections during the fighting.
An MP from Zelensky’s Servant of the People party told the BBC that politicians and civil society organisations had a “strong consensus” that elections would not be held under martial law.
“Even the opposition, which is against Zelensky and would like to see him removed are against elections, because they understand the danger of attempting to hold elections during the war,” stated.
The idea was “exactly what Putin would want”, Merezhko said. “An election campaign would divide. Putin intends to kill us from within using elections after failing to destroy us outside.”
Anton Grushetsky, director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, told the media that Ukrainians do not support elections. He stated that, according to data from the preceding week, barely 10% of people favoured voting before a ceasefire or peace agreement.
In September, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) poll found that 63% of people opposed holding elections after a ceasefire with security guarantees and thought they could only be held after a complete settlement, while 22% said they could.
Shoe store owner Yulia Tovkach in Bucha near Kyiv said Ukraine must end martial law before elections.
“If we don’t, we will be accused of not having a legitimate, proper election,” stated. “And to end martial law, we need a truce with security guarantees.”
Yana Kolomiets, a casting director from Odesa, called elections “foolish” even though she disagreed with Zelensky.
“It would complicate things a lot and would not be in Ukraine’s favour,” stated.
Ukrainian Prism international policy specialist Hanna Shelest told the BBC that “even a year ago, Zelensky said that he was ready for elections as soon as the conditions allow” despite pressure.
In light of troops and refugees voting, unprotected regions, and ongoing strikes, Shelest told the BBC World Service Newsroom program how to establish Zelensky’s conditions.
“You cannot guarantee the security of the polling stations,” stated.
Trump is also pressuring Zelensky to “play ball” and cede land to Moscow in a peace accord to end the war.
The Kremlin said Trump’s “very important” Ukraine pronouncements, including that Moscow would win the war and Kyiv would have to give up land, were consistent with Russia’s stance.
“In many ways, on the subject of Nato membership, on the subject of territories, on the subjects of how Ukraine is losing land, it is in tune with our understanding,” Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman.
The Ukrainian president is on a diplomatic tour of Europe after rigorous talks between US and Ukrainian diplomats over the weekend failed to yield a settlement.
He has urged European and Nato leaders to discourage the US from supporting a deal that Kyiv fears would expose it to future attacks, and has ruled out giving up land.
