“US President Donald Trump once again stated the need to hold elections in Ukraine, stressing that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should be a realist”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“I think he (Zelensky – ed.) should be a realist. And I wonder how long it will be before they have an election? This is democracy. It’s been a long time. They haven’t held elections for a long time,” he said, answering journalists’ questions.
The US president also said that 82% of people demand a peaceful settlement. At the same time, he did not specify which polls he was referring to.
“This is not to criticize anyone, but they really have a serious problem with corruption. And I ask again: when will they hold elections? Will they hold elections at all? Will everything just continue as it is? So I think it’s time to end this war. And I believe that this is a war that can be ended. But it takes two,” Trump added.
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The other day, in an interview with Politico, Trump said that Ukraine should hold presidential elections, which “have not happened in a long time.” In his opinion, the authorities of Ukraine “use the war in order not to have elections.”
After that, Zelenskyi said that he is ready for the elections and called on the US to help provide security for the elections. Today, President Zelenskyi announced that he had a conversation with the representatives of the Verkhovna Rada, and expects from them a vision regarding the possibility of holding elections during martial law.
Read also: ISW: The Kremlin wants to force Ukraine and the West to capitulate to its demands by combining two narratives
Previously, Trump had already called for elections in Ukraine and even called the country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator”, although he later did not repeat these statements.
Russian President Volodymyr Putin and other Russian officials have similarly argued that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi is allegedly illegitimate because Ukraine did not hold a presidential election in 2024, and has also claimed that all Ukrainian civilian authorities are illegitimate because the president appoints regional officials.
Elections are prohibited during the martial law declared in Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
In August, the sociological group “Rating” published the results of a poll on ways to end Russia’s war against Ukraine, according to which 59% of Ukrainians support the cessation of hostilities and the search for a compromise, 20% support the continuation of the war until the return of Donbas and Crimea occupied in 2014, and 13% – until the demarcation line as of February 23, 2022 (the last day before the start of a full-scale Russian invasion).
According to sociologists, the figure of 82% appeared in this survey – such a percentage of respondents, according to sociologists, consider negotiations to be a realistic way to end the war. 62% of them are in favor of finding a compromise with the involvement of other countries, 20% – in favor of direct negotiations with Russia.