Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, said in an interview that Ukraine’s presidential and parliamentary elections, which did not take place in 2024 due to martial law, “must be held”, especially if Kyiv is able to reach a ceasefire with Russia in the coming months, on Saturday, the 1st of February, reported Reuters.
“In most democracies, elections are held in times of war. I think it’s important that they do,” Kellogg said. “I think it is good for democracy. That’s the beauty of a stable democracy, that there is more than one person who can potentially run.”
Both Trump and Kellogg have announced that they are working on a plan to reach an agreement in the first months of the new administration to end the all-out war that broke out with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
They have provided little information on their strategy to end the bloodiest conflict in Europe since the Second World War, nor on when they might unveil this plan.
Trump’s plan is still being worked out and no policy decisions have been made, but Kellogg and other White House officials have been discussing in recent days how to get Ukraine to agree to elections as part of an initial ceasefire with Russia, said two sources and a former US official briefed on the election proposal and those talks. The officials wished to remain anonymous to discuss sensitive information.
Trump officials are also discussing whether to call for an initial ceasefire before seeking a more permanent agreement. If presidential elections were held in Ukraine, the winner could be responsible for negotiating a long-term deal with Moscow, the sources said.
But Dmytro Lytvyn, a communications adviser to Zelenskyy, said on Sunday that “if Trump’s plan is just a ceasefire and elections, then it is a failed plan – Putin will not be deterred by these two things alone,” he told Reuters in a written statement, adding that more information was needed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Ukraine could hold elections this year if hostilities end and strong security guarantees are provided to deter Russia from resuming hostilities.
A senior Kyiv adviser and a Ukrainian government source said that the Trump administration has not yet formally requested Ukraine to hold presidential elections by the end of the year.
Ukrainian law explicitly prohibits holding presidential and parliamentary elections under martial law.
The US discussed elections in 2023 and 2024 with the Zelenskyy team, saying they were important for democracy. Ukrainian officials have strongly rejected the holding of the elections, arguing that they could divide the country and allow Russian interference, officials said.
Asked about what a former Western official and two other people familiar with the matter told Reuters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We have no such information.”
But on Monday, the Kremlin said that elections in Ukraine are necessary for legitimisation.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, quoted by the Interfax news agency on the 27th of January, said direct contacts between Moscow and the Trump administration had not yet started.
The Russian Foreign Ministry says it is still waiting for the US to confirm its new candidate for the position of Moscow’s ambassador to Washington.
Putin has publicly stated that he does not consider Zelenskyy to be a legitimate leader, but that he could take part in talks in the meantime, but first he has to revoke a decree signed in 2022 that bans talks with Russia as long as Putin is in power.
A Ukrainian government source said Putin is using the election issue as a false pretext to delay the upcoming talks.
“(He) is setting a trap by saying that if there are no elections in Ukraine, he will be able to ignore any agreements later,” the source said.
A former US official expressed concern about US efforts to force elections, saying that lifting martial law could allow mobilised soldiers to leave the army, cause a massive cash drain and encourage large numbers of men of draft age to leave the country.
The source pointed out that this could also lead to political instability, as Zelenskyy would become a weak link, which would weaken his power and influence and encourage potential challengers.
If Trump puts pressure on Zelenskyy to agree to the elections, Washington would be supporting Putin’s recent statements questioning the legitimacy of the Ukrainian leader, the former Western official said.
“Trump, I think, is reacting to… Russian feedback,” the official said. “Russia wants to see an end to Zelenskyy.”
Some US officials doubt whether a peace deal or elections will be held any time soon, especially as the two sides appear to be at odds on how to start formal talks.
Russia says Putin is open to talks, but former US ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor said Putin has shown no readiness for serious negotiations.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, wants any deal to be part of US and European security guarantees, including the deployment of foreign troops on the front lines to ensure that Russia respects the ceasefire.