Ukraine is “ready for elections,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said, after US President Donald Trump repeated claims that Kiev was “using the war” to keep Ukraine in line.
President Zelenskyy’s five-year term was scheduled to expire in May 2024, but elections were suspended in Ukraine when martial law was declared following the Russian invasion.
In response to Trump’s comments in a wide-ranging Politico interview, Zelensky told reporters he would ask them to draft proposals that could change the law.
He said elections could be held in the next 60 to 90 days if the security of the vote is ensured with help from the United States and other allies.
“I am now asking and speaking publicly for the United States, perhaps together with our European colleagues, to help me ensure the security of the election,” he told reporters.
Prime Minister Zelensky said, “The issue of the Ukrainian elections depends, above all, on our people. This is a question for the Ukrainian people, not for the citizens of other countries.”
He said, “I have heard hints that we are obsessed with power, or that we are personally obsessed with the president,” adding, “That is why the war will not end,” and “Honestly, it is completely unreasonable.”
Zelenskyy won the 2019 election with more than 73% of the vote.
Discussions about holding elections in 2022 have dominated headlines following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia has consistently maintained that Zelensky is an illegitimate leader and has called for new elections as a condition of the cease-fire agreement, a topic Trump has repeatedly addressed.
“They talk about democracy, but it’s gotten to the point where it’s no longer democracy,” Trump told POLITICO.
There are significant practical obstacles to wartime elections.
Soldiers serving on the front lines may not be able to vote or may need leave to vote. According to the United Nations, about 5.7 million Ukrainians live abroad due to the civil war. And every vote requires complex and additional security measures.
A Ukrainian opposition lawmaker told the BBC that such a vote would only be fair if all Ukrainians, including soldiers fighting on the front line, could participate.
Golos’ Lesia Vasylenko also told the BBC World Service’s Newsday program that “elections are impossible in wartime”, alluding to the suspension of elections in Britain during World War II.
“I am completely against this idea,” said Oleksiy Goncharenko, an opposition member of the European Solidarity Party. “I don’t even understand why Zelenskyy would say such a thing.”
“That is completely impossible,” he said, adding that elections involve the entire process of debate and campaigning. “Perhaps Zelenskyy sees this as an opportunity to hold a quasi-election in his favor, while he controls the media and his opponents are not yet ready.”
“There is very little domestic political pressure on Zelenskyy to call elections while the civil war is ongoing,” said Oleksandr Merezhko, chairman of the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign policy committee.
Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People lawmaker told the BBC there was a “strong consensus” among politicians and civil society groups that elections would not be held under martial law.
“Even the opposition parties that oppose Zelensky and want to get rid of him are against the elections, because they understand the dangers of trying to hold elections during a war,” he said.
Merezhko added that the idea was “exactly what Putin wants.” “The election campaign will be divisive. Having failed to destroy us from without, Putin wants to use the elections as another tool to destroy us from within.”
Anton Grushetsky, director of the International Institute of Sociology in Kyiv, told the BBC there was no widespread public support for the elections in Ukraine. He said data collected last week showed only about 10% of the population supported going to the polls before a ceasefire or peace deal was signed.
A poll conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) in September found that about 63% of people opposed holding secure elections after a ceasefire and thought elections could only be held after a complete solution, while 22% said elections could be held with guaranteed security after a ceasefire.
Yulia Tovkach, who runs a shoe business in Bucha, near Kiev, said she thought it was important for Ukraine to end martial law before the elections.
“Otherwise, we will be accused of failing to hold fair and proper elections,” he said. “To end martial law, we need a ceasefire that guarantees security.”
Yana Kolomiec, a casting director based in the southern city of Odessa, said she thought the idea of holding elections was “foolish” despite her dissatisfaction with Zelenskyy’s leadership.
“It would complicate the situation a lot and would not be favorable to Ukraine,” she said.
“Even a year ago, Zelenskyy said he was ready to run for election as soon as conditions allowed, despite previous pressure,” Hanna Shelest, a foreign policy analyst at think tank Ukrainian Prism, told the BBC.
But the question was how to create the conditions described by Zelensky. Shelest spoke on the BBC World Service’s Newsroom program, taking into account soldiers and refugees who will vote, unsecured areas of the country and ongoing strikes.
“We cannot guarantee the security of polling places,” she said.
Zelenskyy is also under increasing pressure from President Trump to agree to a peace deal to end the war. The American leader is urging Zelenskyy to “play ball” by handing territory to Moscow.
The Kremlin said Trump’s “very important” comments on Ukraine, including that Moscow would win the war and that Kiev should hand over land, were consistent with Russia’s views.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “It coincides with our interests in many ways: on the issue of NATO membership, on territorial issues, on how Ukraine is losing land.”
