Zelensky claims that if allies ensure security, Ukraine is “ready for elections.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky declared that Ukraine was “ready for elections” in response to US President Donald Trump’s repeated accusations that Kyiv was “using war” to postpone having elections. Zelensky’s five-year tenure as president was scheduled to expire in May 2024, but since martial law was imposed in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, elections have been postponed.

Following Trump’s remarks, Zelensky told reporters in a heated Politico interview that he would request the creation of suggestions that would alter the legislation. If security for the vote was ensured with assistance from the United States and other friends, elections could take place within the next sixty to ninety days, he said.

“I’m asking now, and I’m stating this openly, for the US to help me, perhaps together with our European colleagues, to ensure security for the elections,” he told reporters.

“The issue of elections in Ukraine, I believe, depends first and foremost on our people, and this is a question for the people of Ukraine, not the people of other countries. With all due respect to our partners,” Zelensky said.

“I’ve heard hints that we’re clinging to power, or that I personally am clinging to the presidency” and “that’s why the war isn’t ending”, which he called “frankly, a completely unreasonable narrative”.

With over 73% of the vote, Zelensky won the 2019 election. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, discussions on holding elections have garnered media attention. Trump has reiterated Russia’s repeated claims that Zelensky is an illegitimate leader and that fresh elections are necessary for a ceasefire agreement. A wartime election is fraught with practical difficulties. Soldiers on the front lines may not be able to cast ballots or may need permission to do so. The UN estimates that the conflict has forced 5.7 million Ukrainians to live outside. Additionally, complicated, extra security measures would be needed for any ballot.

Such a vote would only be fair if all Ukrainians could participate, including soldiers fighting on the front line, a Ukrainian opposition MP told. Lesia Vasylenko of Golos also told the BBC World Service’s Newsday programme that “elections are never possible in wartime”, alluding to the suspension of elections in the UK during World War Two.

Oleksiy Goncharenko, an opposition MP from the European Solidarity party, said: “I am completely against the idea, I can’t even understand why Zelensky would say it.”

“It is completely impossible,” he said, adding that elections involve an entire process of debates and campaigns. “Maybe Zelensky sees it as an opportunity to hold quasi-elections that will be favourable to him, while he controls the media and his opponents are likely not ready.”