{"id":2139,"date":"2025-12-09T22:37:52","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T22:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=2139"},"modified":"2025-12-09T22:37:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T22:37:52","slug":"zelenskyy-ready-for-elections-after-trump-questions-ukrainian-democracy-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=2139","title":{"rendered":"Zelenskyy \u2018ready for elections\u2019 after Trump questions Ukrainian democracy | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is ready to hold a wartime election within the next three months, if Ukraine\u2019s parliament and foreign allies will allow it, after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/dec\/09\/trump-hints-walking-away-ukraine-calls-europe-weak-decaying\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Donald Trump accused him of clinging on to power<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Zelenskyy, clearly irritated by Trump\u2019s intervention, said that \u201cthis is a question for the people of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/ukraine\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Ukraine<\/a>, not people from other states, with all due respect to our partners\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">However, he promised to explore avenues for holding a vote in the coming months. \u201cSince this question is raised today by the president of the United States of America, our partners, I will answer very briefly: look, I am ready for elections,\u201d Zelenskyy said on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cMoreover, I am asking \u2026 the United States to help me, possibly together with European colleagues, to ensure security for the elections, and then in the next 60 to 90 days Ukraine will be ready to hold the elections. I personally have the will and readiness for this,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Trump made the comments in a rambling interview with Politico published earlier on Tuesday. \u201cThey haven\u2019t had an election in a long time,\u201d said the US president. \u201cYou know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it\u2019s not a democracy any more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Zelenskyy\u2019s five-year term expired in May last year, but the Ukrainian constitution prohibits elections in wartime, and even his political opponents have said repeatedly that the security and political considerations do not allow for holding an election during wartime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cIt would only cause harm,\u201d said Serhiy Rakhmanin, an MP from the opposition Holos party. \u201cHe\u2019s the commander-in-chief, and the country is in a position where we don\u2019t have that luxury, whatever issues we might have with him. It would only help the enemy,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Zelenskyy said the two key questions to solve would be the logistical one of how soldiers, the millions of displaced people, and those living under occupation would be able to vote, and secondly, how to hold elections legally, given martial law is in effect.<\/p>\n<figure data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.NewsletterSignupBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-173mewl\"><a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"#EmailSignup-skip-link-8\" class=\"dcr-jzxpee\">skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n<aside aria-label=\"newsletter promotion\" class=\"dcr-av5vqf\">\n<div class=\"dcr-10et71f\">\n<p class=\"dcr-rsfwa\">Sign up to <span>This is Europe<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"dcr-1xjndtj\">The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans \u2013 from identity to economics to the environment<\/p>\n<p><gu-island name=\"SecureSignup\" priority=\"feature\" deferuntil=\"visible\" props=\"{&quot;newsletterId&quot;:&quot;this-is-europe&quot;,&quot;successDescription&quot;:&quot;The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans \u2013 from identity to economics to the environment&quot;}\"\/><span class=\"dcr-1eusqlu\"><strong>Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on<!-- --> <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\">theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our<!-- --> <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/help\/privacy-policy\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\">Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google<!-- --> <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\">Privacy Policy<\/a> and<!-- --> <a data-ignore=\"global-link-styling\" href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/terms\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"dcr-1rjy2q9\">Terms of Service<\/a> <!-- -->apply.<\/span><\/aside>\n<p id=\"EmailSignup-skip-link-8\" tabindex=\"0\" aria-label=\"after newsletter promotion\" role=\"note\" class=\"dcr-jzxpee\">after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<figure id=\"9ec377f6-b56f-474c-9d63-2b13b0d4a90c\" data-spacefinder-role=\"richLink\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement\" class=\"dcr-47fhrn\"><gu-island name=\"RichLinkComponent\" priority=\"feature\" deferuntil=\"idle\" props=\"{&quot;richLinkIndex&quot;:9,&quot;element&quot;:{&quot;_type&quot;:&quot;model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.RichLinkBlockElement&quot;,&quot;prefix&quot;:&quot;Related: &quot;,&quot;text&quot;:&quot;New Trump doctrine identifies \u2018weak\u2019 Europe\u2019s problem: not enough racism&quot;,&quot;elementId&quot;:&quot;9ec377f6-b56f-474c-9d63-2b13b0d4a90c&quot;,&quot;role&quot;:&quot;richLink&quot;,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/dec\/09\/trump-europe-national-security-strategy&quot;},&quot;ajaxUrl&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/api.nextgen.guardianapps.co.uk&quot;,&quot;format&quot;:{&quot;design&quot;:0,&quot;display&quot;:0,&quot;theme&quot;:0}}\"\/><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">He asked for advice from allies regarding securing the elections, and from MPs on how to amend the law to allow for elections. \u201cI am waiting for proposals from partners, I am waiting for proposals from our MPs, and I am ready to go to the elections,\u201d said Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Zelenskyy was speaking while returning to Ukraine after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2025\/dec\/08\/european-leaders-rally-behind-ukraine-in-downing-street-talks\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">a diplomatic tour of European capitals<\/a> that has come as the White House has increased pressure on Kyiv to sign up to a peace deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Over the weekend, Trump\u2019s son Donald Jr <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/dec\/07\/us-may-end-support-for-ukraine-war-effort-says-donald-trump-jr\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">said at a conference in Doha<\/a> that Zelenskyy was prolonging the war because he was worried he would otherwise lose power. He also suggested Trump might \u201cwalk away\u201d from Ukraine if the war does not end soon. \u201cIt\u2019s not correct. But it\u2019s not exactly wrong,\u201d said Trump, when asked about his son\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The US has indicated that Ukraine should give up the Donbas region to achieve peace, a move which would be highly unpopular in Ukraine. There is also no sign that Russia is ready to agree to a deal, even one which would appear to be beneficial to Moscow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>#Zelenskyy #ready #elections #Trump #questions #Ukrainian #democracy #Ukraine<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said h&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}