President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv and Washington are in talks about holding elections, with the US potentially helping set the conditions so Ukrainians can vote in safety.
US President Donald Trump has in recent weeks criticized the absence of wartime elections in Ukraine – echoing Kremlin demands – despite such elections being prohibited under Ukraine’s Constitution and rendered nearly impossible by logistical hurdles.
Speaking at a press conference alongside Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro during the latter’s visit to Kyiv on Saturday, Zelensky called on Washington to help create the conditions for safe elections.
“Security is something we have already talked about with our American partners, they have raised this issue. I think if they raise it, it means they know how to help us ensure safe elections – this could, first of all, be a ceasefire, or an end to the war, or a ceasefire at least for the duration of the elections,” Zelensky said, as reported by Interfax Ukraine.
He reiterated that Kyiv is looking into options to allow Ukrainians to vote – abroad or at home.
“Those who are not in Ukraine can come, if it is safe, or abroad,” he said.
“Of course, in today’s situation, if or when we reach the elections, there will be a certain complication due to the number of Ukrainians abroad. But there are all the tasks for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for this,” Zelensky added.
“They have already started to deal with this, they have contacts with our partners abroad.”
But he said Ukrainians abroad would only be able to return home to vote once the country is safe.
“And in any case, citizens of Ukraine, I believe that when there is a proper security situation, and elections can only be held when there is security for their holding, then I think, a large number of Ukrainians from abroad will come to Ukraine,” he added.
He also ruled out elections in occupied territories due to Moscow’s tendency to falsify the results – a reference to Moscow’s attempt to annex Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions via sham referendums in late 2022.
“Elections cannot break out in the territories not controlled by Ukraine, temporarily occupied, because it is clear how they will be held. Russia – it first talks about the result, even of its internal elections, and then they already count the votes,” he added.
‘Peace is better than war’
Zelensky also said Ukraine cannot accept peace at any cost, hinting at Kyiv’s red lines on territorial concessions – one of the Kremlin’s demands in the current US-backed peace drafts.
“Peace is better than war, but not at any price, because we have already paid a high price. For us, a just, strong peace is important, so that it cannot be violated by another desire of Putin or another Putin,” he said.
“It is very important that there are strong security guarantees for this, to make it impossible even the thought and physical possibility of coming to us with aggression.”
He added that Kyiv wants a real end to Russia’s invasion, and not just a peace deal on paper amid ongoing peace talks in Miami.
“This should not be just an agreement – good, bad – the question is for whom is it good, for whom is it bad? I do not want to characterize it. It may not be, it is not there today, there is no agreement today,” he said.
“It is there when it is not only on paper, written in letters, but the war is stopped,” he added, citing the 1994 Budapest Memorandum as a failed example, during which Ukraine relinquished its Soviet-era nuclear arsenals in exchange for territorial guarantees that were violated by Russia, one of the signatories of the memorandum.