Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he is ready to hold elections in the war-torn country if the United States and other partners can provide the security necessary to ensure the vote can be held safely.
The White House has been pushing for Ukraine to hold elections — US President Donald Trump told Politico in an interview published on December 9 “it’s time”– even though Ukraine’s constitution doesn’t allow for elections during wartime.
In a shift from previous statements, Zelenskyy said he would push parliament to draft legislation allowing for elections during martial law.
A vote could follow in 60 to 90 days if a ceasefire to halt the nearly four-year-old war with Russia and security guarantees ensuring the electoral process are in place.
“I’m asking now, and stating this openly, for the US, perhaps with our European partners, to help me ensure the security needed to hold elections,” Zelenskyy told reporters on December 9, noting he had yet to discuss the issue with Trump.
“I personally have the will and readiness for this.”
The possibility of holding elections in Ukraine has been regularly dismissed with officials saying such an exercise would be impossible given the daily Russian air strikes across the country, thousands of soldiers battling on the frontlines, and millions of Ukrainians displaced because of the war.
Opinion polls in the country show most Ukrainians are against holding wartime elections though with the last elections held in 2019, some want changes in the government to bring in fresh ideas.
Zelenskyy’s comments come amid intense negotiations aimed at ending the war, sparked by Russia’s full scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.
The Ukrainian leader was in Italy on December 9 as he tours Europe to ensure a US-led proposal to end Russia’s war on Ukraine does not result in a lopsided deal that would reward Moscow for its aggression against its neighbor and leave Kyiv vulnerable to future attacks.
He said in a post on social media that Ukraine and its European partners will soon present the US with “refined documents” on the peace plan.
“The Ukrainian and European components are now more developed, and we are ready to present them to our partners in the US,” he wrote.
“Together with the Americans, we expect to swiftly make the potential steps as doable as possible.”
Several sticking points are said to remain in finalizing a peace plan, including the formulation of a document that will be accepted by both Kyiv and Moscow.
Zelenskyy told Bloomberg News on December 8 that US-led talks on a potential peace deal have yet to produce agreement on territorial control in the eastern region known as the Donbas, where Russia is demanding that Ukraine cede land it continues to hold despite years of attacks.
On December 8, Zelenskyy held talks in London and Brussels on the peace proposal. Those discussions followed three days of meetings between Ukrainian and US officials near Miami as negotiators try to find agreement following the release of a US draft peace proposal last month.
