Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is ready to hold elections if security allows, while peace talks continue, Ukraine resists Russian demands, and military operations persist in Donbas.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated that he is ready to hold elections in his war-torn country if the United States and other partners can create the safe conditions necessary for voting. This was reported by Radio Svoboda.
The White House has insisted on holding elections in Ukraine – U.S. President Donald Trump told Politico in an interview published on December 9 that “the time has come,” even though Ukraine’s Constitution does not allow elections to take place during wartime.
Departing from his previous stance, Zelenskyy said he would raise in parliament the issue of drafting a bill that would permit elections under martial law.
Voting could take place 60–90 days after reaching a ceasefire agreement, which would halt the nearly four-year war with Russia, and after securing safety guarantees to ensure the electoral process.
“I am asking now, and stating this openly, for the United States, possibly with our European partners, to help me ensure the security needed to hold elections,” Zelenskyy told journalists on December 9, noting that he has not yet discussed the matter with Trump.
“I personally have the will and readiness for this,” he said.
The possibility of holding elections in Ukraine is regularly dismissed, with officials citing the impossibility of the process due to daily Russian attacks across the country, thousands of soldiers engaged in defending the nation on the frontlines, and millions of Ukrainians scattered around the world because of the war.
Surveys in the country indicate that most Ukrainians are against holding elections during wartime, although, since the last elections were in 2019, some want changes in the government to bring fresh ideas.
Zelenskyy’s comments came amid intensive negotiations aimed at ending the war caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
On December 9, the Ukrainian leader was in Italy during a European trip to ensure that the U.S. proposal to end Russia’s war against Ukraine would not result in a one-sided agreement that rewards Moscow for its aggression against its neighbor and leaves Kyiv vulnerable to future attacks.
On social media, Zelenskyy wrote that Ukraine and its European partners will soon provide the United States with “enhanced documents” regarding the peace plan.
“The Ukrainian and European components are now more developed, and we are ready to present them to our partners in the U.S.,” he wrote.
“Together with the Americans, we expect to quickly make potential steps as feasible as possible.”
It is noted that several difficult points remain in the refinement of the peace plan, acceptable to both Kyiv and Moscow.
On December 8, Zelenskyy told Bloomberg News that no agreement had yet been reached on territorial control over Donbas. Russia is demanding that Ukraine cede territory it continues to hold under its control despite years of attacks.
On December 8, Zelenskyy held talks in London and Brussels regarding the peace proposal. These discussions followed three days of meetings between Ukrainian and U.S. officials in Florida. Negotiators sought a compromise after the U.S. peace plan draft was published last month and following a visit by American representatives to Moscow.
In his speech at the UN Security Council on December 9, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UN, Andriy Melnyk, declared that Ukraine is not “for sale.”
“Our territory and our sovereignty are not for sale. We are not at a Christmas market,” he said during an open briefing on Ukraine.
“Russia wants Ukraine’s capitulation, as we just heard. Russia wants us to surrender. But my response to you is this: you’ll get the hole from a doughnut, not Ukraine,” Melnyk said in reply to an earlier statement by Russia’s Ambassador to the UN, Vasyl Nebenzya. The Russian envoy insisted that Russia would achieve its goals in Ukraine by any means necessary — military or diplomatic.
Meanwhile, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, stated that Ukrainian troops continue to control part of Pokrovsk — a strategic city in Donbas that Russia claims to have captured.
“The defense of Pokrovsk continues; our forces control nearly 13 square kilometers in the northern part of the city. Myrnohrad is not encircled. In Kupiansk, our successful counter-sabotage operation is ongoing,” he wrote on Facebook.
