Ukraine ‘ready for elections’ if partners guarantee security, Zelensky says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine is “ready for elections”, after US President Donald Trump repeated his claims that Kiev is “using war” to avoid holding elections.

Zelensky’s five-year term as president was scheduled to end in May 2024, but elections in Ukraine have been suspended since martial law was declared following the Russian invasion.

He spoke to reporters following Trump’s statements with widespread anger Political interviewZelensky said he would ask to formulate proposals that could change the law.

He added that elections may be held within the next sixty to ninety days if voting security is ensured with the help of the United States and other allies.

He told reporters, “I am now asking, and I say this frankly, that the United States help me, perhaps with our European colleagues, to ensure security for the elections.”

Zelensky said: “I believe that the issue of elections in Ukraine depends first and foremost on our people, and this is an issue that concerns the people of Ukraine, not the people of other countries. With all due respect to our partners.”

“I’ve heard insinuations that we’re clinging to power, or that I’m clinging to the presidency” and “that’s why the war never ends,” which he described as “frankly, a completely implausible narrative.”

Zelensky He won the election in 2019 By obtaining more than 73% of the votes.

Discussions about holding elections have made headlines since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russia has consistently claimed that Zelensky is an illegitimate leader and has demanded new elections as a condition for a ceasefire agreement — a talking point that Trump has repeated.

The US President told Politico: “They talk about democracy, but it has reached a point where it is no longer a democracy.”

There are significant practical obstacles to holding elections in wartime.

Soldiers serving on the front lines may not be able to vote or need permission to do so. According to the United Nations, there are about 5.7 million Ukrainians living abroad due to the conflict. Any ballot will require complex and additional security measures.

One member of the Ukrainian opposition parliament told the BBC that such a vote would only be fair if all Ukrainians could participate, including soldiers fighting on the front lines.

Golos’ Lesia Vasilenko also told BBC World’s Newsday program that “elections are absolutely not possible in wartime,” referring to the suspension of elections in the United Kingdom during World War II.

Oleksiy Goncharenko, an opposition lawmaker from the European Solidarity Party, said: “I am completely against the idea, and I cannot even understand why Zelensky is saying that.”

“It is absolutely impossible,” he said, adding that elections involve a whole process of discussions and campaigns. “Perhaps Zelensky sees this as an opportunity to hold a quasi-election that will favor him, while he controls the media and his opponents are likely not prepared.”

Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign policy committee, said there was little domestic political pressure on Zelensky to call elections while the conflict continues.

An MP from Zelensky’s Servant of the People party told the BBC that there was a “strong consensus” among politicians and civic organizations that the elections would not be held under martial law.

He added: “Even the opposition that stands against Zelensky and wants to remove him is against elections, because it realizes the danger of trying to hold elections during war.”

Merezhko added that the idea was “exactly what Putin wanted.” “The election campaign will be divisive. Having failed to destroy us from the outside, Putin wants to destroy us from the inside, using elections as another tool to do so.”

Anton Grushitsky, director of the Kyiv International Sociological Institute, told the BBC that there was no widespread popular support in Ukraine for the elections. He added that according to data collected over the past week, only about 10% of the population supports the idea of ​​going to the polls before a ceasefire or peace agreement.

A survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) in September showed that about 63% of people opposed holding elections after a ceasefire with security guarantees, and believed that they could only be held after a full settlement, while 22% said that elections could be held after a ceasefire with security guarantees.

Yulia Tovkach, who owns a shoe store in Bucha near Kiev, said she believes it is necessary for Ukraine to end martial law before any elections.

“If we do not do this, we will be accused of not holding legitimate and proper elections,” she said. He added, “To end martial law, we need a truce with security guarantees.”

Yana Kolomyets, a casting director based in the southern city of Odessa, said she thought the idea of ​​holding elections was “ridiculous,” even if she was unhappy with Zelensky’s leadership.

“This will greatly complicate matters and will not be in Ukraine’s interest,” she added.

Hannah Shelist, a foreign policy analyst at the Ukrainian think tank Prism, told the BBC that “even a year ago, Zelensky said he was ready to hold elections as soon as conditions allowed” in the face of previous pressure.

However, the question was how to create the conditions outlined by Zelensky, Schelest told the BBC World Service Newsroom programme, given the soldiers and refugees who would be voting, the unsafe areas of the country and the ongoing strikes.

“You can’t guarantee the security of polling places,” she said.

Zelensky is also facing increasing pressure from Trump to agree to a peace deal to end the war, with the US president urging Zelensky to “play ball” by ceding territory to Moscow.

The Kremlin said Trump’s “very significant” comments on Ukraine, including saying Moscow would win the war and that Kiev would need to hand over territory, were in line with Russia’s view.

“In many ways, on NATO membership, on the issue of territory, on the issues of how Ukraine lost territory, it is consistent with our understanding,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.