Ukraine’s Zelenskyy ‘ready for elections’ after Trump suggests Kyiv ‘using war’ to avoid them

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine is prepared to hold elections within three months if the U.S. and Kyiv’s other allies could ensure the security of the vote.

Wartime elections are forbidden by law but Zelenskyy, whose term expired last year, is facing renewed pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to hold a vote as he pushes Kyiv to secure peace quickly in the nearly four-year-old war with Russia.

“I’m ready for elections, and moreover I ask … that the U.S. help me, maybe together with European colleagues, to ensure the security of an election,” Zelenskyy said in comments to reporters on Tuesday.

“And then in the next 60 [to] 90 days, Ukraine will be ready to hold an election.”

Zelenskyy’s remarks followed comments by Trump in an interview with Politico published on Tuesday suggesting Ukraine’s government was using the war as an excuse to avoid elections.

“You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore,” Trump said.

Zelenskyy dismissed suggestions that he was clinging to power as “totally inadequate.”

Ensuring a safe election

Ukraine, which is pushing back on a U.S.-backed peace plan seen as Moscow-friendly, is seeking strong security guarantees from its allies that would prevent a new Russian invasion.

Zelenskyy said Ukrainian officials would hold talks on Wednesday with U.S. counterparts on issues of postwar reconstruction and economic development. The broader 20-point framework for a peace plan would be delivered to the U.S. in the near future, he said Wednesday.

Zelenskyy and other officials have routinely dismissed the idea of holding elections with frequent Russian airstrikes across the country, nearly a million troops at the front and millions more Ukrainians displaced.

Also uncertain is the voting status of those Ukrainians living in the one-fifth of the country occupied by Russia, as well as those near the front line.

On Tuesday, Zelenskyy said he would ask parliament to prepare proposals for legislation that could allow for elections during martial law.

Polls have shown that Ukrainians are against holding wartime elections but also want new faces in a political landscape largely unchanged since the last national elections in 2019.

Top European leader to meet again on Ukraine

Zelenskyy is eager to share a revised peace plan with the U.S., after talks in London earlier this week with the leaders of France, Germany and Britain, as well as in Brussels with NATO and European Union officials.

The office of the French president said there will be another meeting on Thursday of the leaders of the “coalition of the willing,” the group of nations representing Ukraine’s allies and jointly led by France and Britain.

The office added Wednesday that this meeting would be held by videoconference. It was not immediately clear if Zelenskyy would be participating.

The Ukrainian leader has ruled out ceding territory to Russia, and he and his European allies are concerned that the U.S.-backed deal bows to many of Moscow’s key demands, does not fully address their security concerns and would reward Russia for invading Ukraine.

Statements by U.S. officials have shaken assumptions about Europe’s alliance with Washington. A new U.S. National Security Strategy document released last week said Europe must change course or face “erasure,” seemingly providing succor for the nationalist parties on the continent who assail the current levels of migration.

In the Politico interview, Trump characterized Europe’s political leaders as “weak.”

“They want to be so politically correct,” he said.

Trump has had a contentious relationship with Ukraine’s leader, dating back to his first term, when he was impeached by the Democrat-led U.S. House of Representatives for pressuring Zelenskyy over Ukraine military aid in exchange for political favours. Trump was acquitted in the U.S. Senate.

Trump has been highly critical of the amount of military and humanitarian aid given to Ukraine by the previous Biden administration since Russia invaded in early 2022.

This year, the second Trump administration has cut off supplies to Kyiv unless they were paid for by other NATO countries.

Some Ukrainian troops pull back outside Pokrovsk

The flurry of talks is occurring at a critical time in the war, as winter begins.

Pokrovsk has been the focus of a long, slow drive by Russian forces through Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, with Moscow announcing the capture of new villages several times a week.

Russia’s military last week said its forces had captured Pokrovsk, but Ukrainian officials denied the claim.

Ukrainian troops have been holding parts of the beleaguered city since mid-November, but some units were ordered to withdraw from impractical positions outside the city in the past week, Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, confirmed to reporters on Tuesday.

Syrskyi said that Russian troops were staging a buildup in the area under cover of rain and fog.