Ukraine’s regular election cycle has been suspended while the country is under martial law during the ongoing war with Russia.
President Donald Trump wants Ukraine to hold new elections by the end of this year, according to his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia-related affairs.
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg said in an interview with Reuters that Ukraine needs to resume its regular presidential and parliamentary elections.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s current president, won a five-year presidential term in 2019. Under normal circumstances, Zelenskyy would’ve been up for reelection last year, but Ukrainian law doesn’t allow elections during a state of martial law.
Ukraine initiated martial law in 2022 after Russian forces launched a full-scale military invasion of the country.
Now the Trump administration is pushing for Ukraine to return to regularly scheduled elections.
“Most democratic nations have elections in their time of war. I think it is important they do so,” Kellogg said.
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On the campaign trail, Trump routinely signaled his desire to negotiate an end to the war.
As he spoke with reporters at the White House on Jan. 31, Trump was asked to provide an update on his efforts to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We‘ll be speaking, and I think we’ll perhaps do something that’ll be significant. We want to end that war,” Trump said.
Zelenskyy has indicated that he would be open to resuming regular elections in Ukraine if the fighting stops and strong security guarantees are in place.
It’s unclear how closely the Trump administration is willing to tie a cease-fire to its push for Ukraine to restart elections. The Epoch Times reached out to the White House for further details but did not receive a response by publication time.
Some of Ukraine’s other international supporters have previously encouraged the country to stick to its regular election cycle.
The European Convention on Human Rights states that members of the Council of Europe—a group including Ukraine—commit to “hold free elections at reasonable intervals by secret ballot.”
In a May 2023 interview with European Pravda, Tiny Kox, then-president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, said Ukraine has to hold elections as part of its obligations as a member of the Council of Europe.
“Nobody will blame Ukraine if not everything will be perfect,” Kox said at the time. ”Everybody will blame Ukraine if you do not organize elections.”
In comments in August 2023, Zelenskyy suggested that Ukraine could’ve kept to its regular election schedule with sufficient Western financial support. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) responded at the time by saying he was pleased to hear Zelenskyy was open to preserving the regular election schedule.
“I cannot think of a better symbol for Ukraine than to hold free and fair elections during the course of a war,” Graham said.
Ultimately, that talk of on-time elections fell through. Under the martial law conditions, Zelenskyy has continued to serve as president of Ukraine, after his original term was set to end in May 2024.
Reuters contributed to this report.
