Konstantin Sonin
That's a very strange idea to press Ukraine into having presidential elections. First, Zelensky will handily win any election - in Ukraine, there are no non-freak polticians who'd run against him in the war-time. Second, suppose hypothetically that someone - Zaluzhny or Klitschko, say - run. Any serious opposition right now more "pro-war" than Zelensky. His main vulnerability, if any, is prosecution of the war. He might be, hypothetically, defeated by "I will win the war" candidate. Apparently, President Trump fell under the spell of Putin's fantasy that there is some "pro-Russian" opposition in Ukraine. It was a fantasy in 2022. (The invasion was based on this fantasy, among other things.) It is even more a fantasy in 2025. But Putin sticks to it, and now President Trump seems to have fallen for it.
Visegrád 24
Trump says it’s time for presidential elections in Ukraine Politico journalist Dasha Burns asked the US president whether Ukraine should hold elections. “Yeah. I think so. It’s been a long time. Things aren’t going very well. Yeah, I think it’s time. They’re using war not to hold an election, but I would think the Ukrainian people should have that choice. And maybe Zelensky would win. But they haven’t had an election in a long time. They talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore,” Donald Trump said.
