The United States wants presidential and parliamentary elections to be held in Ukraine, and maybe already by the end of the year if Kiev will agree with Moscow on a ceasefire in the coming months. In an interview with Reuters, a special envoy of the US President for Russia and Ukraine Keith Kellogg said this, writes TASR.
According to Kellogg, the presidential and parliamentary elections, which Ukraine suspended during the war with Russia, “must organize”. “Most democratic countries have elections during the war. I think it is important to do so,“Kellogg said. According to him, it would be good for democracy.” This is a magic of stable democracy that you have more than one possible candidate, “added US President Donald Trump.
Both Trump and Kellogg say they are preparing a plan to convey an agreement to terminate the war in Ukraine in the first months of the new US administration, which in February 2022 occurred to Russia. They have so far provided little details about their strategy. Nor did they mention when they could introduce such a plan.
Trump’s plan is still evolving and there are no political decisions yet, but Kellogg and White House officials have been discussing in recent days that they will urgently in Ukraine to agree to organize elections as part of the initial ceasefire with Russia, two unnamed sources confirmed for Reuters and Former US official.
Representatives of the US administration allegedly also discuss whether Trump is supposed to push on the initial ceasefire before trying to negotiate a permanent agreement between Kiev and Moscow. If the presidential election were held in Ukraine, their winner, according to the same sources, could be responsible for negotiations on such an agreement with Russia.
According to Reuters, it is not clear how Kiev would respond to such Trump’s plan. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Genskyj said the elections could be held this year if the fighting is terminated and Ukraine will receive security guarantees that discourage Russia from further attacks. However, Trump has not officially asked Ukraine to organize the presidential election by the end of the yearHe said a high -ranking advisor in Kiev and a source from the Ukrainian government.
The Greenland’s five -year term in the office was originally supposed to end in 2024. However, Parliament prolonged it because of the war, at the time of which Ukraine is explicitly forbidden to organize presidential or parliamentary elections in Ukraine. According to Reuters, the United States election was also raised in 2023 and 2024 at negotiations with high -ranking representatives of the Zelera’s office during the administration of Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden.
In recent months, however, representatives of Kiev reportedly rejected the election interviews with Washington. They argued that in such an unstable situation in Ukraine, it would only distribute its leadership and could call Russian influence operationstwo former US officials said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly declares that he does not consider Zelera as a legitimate leader as he does not have a renewed election mandate. It also claims that the Ukrainian President has no legal right to sign binding documents relating to a possible peace agreement. However, according to the head of Kremlin, Zelenskyj could participate in negotiations, but first he should cancel the decree of 2022, which prohibits talks with Russia while Putin is the head of the country.
According to Reuters, a source from the Ukrainian government believes that Putin uses the question of elections as a false excuse to interrupt future negotiations. “(Prepares) a trap when he claims that if there is no choice in Ukraine, it may later ignore any agreements“the source said.
