President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine is “ready for elections”, after US President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed Kiev was “using war” to avoid elections.
Zelensky’s five-year term as president was due to end in May 2024, but elections in Ukraine have been suspended after martial law was declared following Russia’s invasion.
Speaking to reporters after Trump’s comments in a wide-ranging interview with Politico, Zelensky said he would ask to draft proposals that could change the law.
He said, if security for voting is guaranteed with the help of America and other allies, then elections can be held in the next 60 to 90 days.
“I’m asking now, and I’m saying this openly, that the United States perhaps work with our European allies to help me ensure security for the elections,” he told reporters.
Zelensky said, “I believe that the issue of elections in Ukraine depends first and foremost on our people, and this is a question for the people of Ukraine, not for 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 personally clinging to the presidency” and “that’s why the war is not ending”, which he called a “frankly, completely unfair narrative”.
Zelensky won the election in 2019 with more than 73% of the vote.
Discussions about holding elections in 2022 have been in the news since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia has consistently claimed Zelensky is an illegitimate leader and has demanded new elections as a condition of a ceasefire agreement – a point reiterated by Trump.
“They talk about democracy, but it gets to the point where it’s no longer democracy,” the US president told POLITICO.
Wartime elections face significant practical constraints.
Soldiers serving on the front lines may either be unable to vote or may need leave to do so. According to the United Nations, approximately 5.7 million Ukrainians live abroad due to the conflict. And any ballot measure would require complex, additional security measures.
A Ukrainian opposition MP told the BBC that such a vote would only be fair if all Ukrainians, including soldiers fighting on the front lines, could take part.
Golos’s Lesia Vasilenko also said on the BBC World Service’s Newsday program that “elections are never possible in wartime”, referring to the postponement of elections in Britain during the Second World War.
Oleksiy Goncharenko, an opposition lawmaker from the European Solidarity party, said: “I am completely against this idea, I can’t even understand why Zelensky would say this.”
“It is completely impossible,” he said. He said that elections involve the entire process of debate and campaign. “Perhaps Zelensky sees this as an opportunity to hold snap elections that would be favorable to him, while he controls the media and his rivals are potentially unprepared.”
Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the foreign policy committee in Ukraine’s parliament, said there is little domestic political pressure on Zelensky to call elections while the conflict continues.
MPs from the Servant of the People – Zelensky’s party – told the BBC that there was a “strong consensus” among politicians and civil organizations that the elections would not be held under martial law.
“Even the opposition, which is against Zelensky and wants to remove him, is against elections, because they understand the danger of attempting to hold elections during a war,” he said.
“The idea was exactly what Putin would want,” Merezhko said. “The election campaign will be divisive. Having failed to destroy us from the outside, Putin wants to destroy us from within, and is using the election as another tool to do so.”
Anton Grushetsky, director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, told the BBC that there is no widespread public support for the elections in Ukraine. He said, according to data collected last week, only 10% of the population supports the idea of going to the polls before a ceasefire or peace agreement.
A survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) in September found that about 63% of people opposed holding elections after a ceasefire with security guarantees and were of the opinion that elections 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 runs a shoe business in Bucha, near Kiev, said she thinks it is important for Ukraine to end martial law before any elections.
“If we don’t do that, we will be accused of not conducting legitimate, fair elections,” he said. “And to end martial law, we need a ceasefire with security guarantees.”
Casting director Yana Kolomiets, who lives in the southern city of Odessa, said she thought the idea of holding an election was “stupid”, even though she was dissatisfied with Zelensky’s leadership.
“This would complicate things greatly and would not be in Ukraine’s favor,” he said.
Hannah Shelest, a foreign policy analyst at the think tank Ukrainian Prism, told the BBC that “even a year ago, Zelensky said he was ready for elections as soon as circumstances would allow, despite previous pressure”.
However, the question was how to create the conditions that Zelensky has outlined, Shelest said on the Newsroom program on the BBC World Service, given the soldiers and refugees who would be voting, the unsafe areas in the country and the ongoing attacks.
“You can’t guarantee the security of polling stations,” he said.
Zelensky is also facing increasing pressure from Trump to agree a peace deal to end the war, with the US leader urging Zelensky to “move forward” by handing over territory to Moscow.
The Kremlin said Trump’s “very significant” statements on Ukraine, including saying Moscow would win the war and would require Kiev to cede ground, are consistent with Russia’s approach.
“In many ways, this is consistent with our understanding of how Ukraine is losing ground, on the topic of NATO membership, on the topic of territories,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
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