Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that elections would be held in his country only after Kyiv has reached a ceasefire with Russia and received security guarantees from its allies.
Zelenskiy made the remarks on Wednesday, while denying suggestions that he was planning to hold fresh elections under US pressure.
"We will move to elections when all the relevant security guarantees are in place. I have always said that the issue of elections is raised by various partners. Ukraine itself has never raised it," Zelenskyy said in a WhatsApp chat with journalists. Zelenskiy added that ceasefire could be reached “by summer” if Russia also agrees. Zelensky later said in an X post that it was "an utterly stupid idea to use such a date to talk about politics". Zelenskiy also wrote that the US has proposed has proposed holding another round of talks for ending the war, to which Russia has not responded yet.
Under Ukrainian constitution, holding elections during the martial law is illegal. Ukraine declared martial law after Russia launched full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022. Earlier, Financial Times reported that Washington had pressuring Kyiv to hold fresh balloting, prompting Ukraine to consider holding elections within the next three months. The newspaper also suggested that Ukraine could made election announcement as early as February 24, the fourth anniversary of Russia’s occupation. Zelenskiy repeatedly stated that holding presidential elections would be possible only after reaching ceasefire due to the martial law that was imposed two days after the war. However, recently has signalled opened to hold speed elections as part of a US plan to end the war. The Kremlin repeatedly questioned Zelenskiy’s legitimacy post-2024 when his presidential term expired.
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