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Zelensky says ready to hold Ukraine elections; may present updated peace plan to US soon
Ukraine is currently under martial law due to its war with Russia, which has been going on for almost four years now.
War-torn Ukraine, where last elections were held in 2019, is ready to hold fresh polls given that security can be assured, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday after his United States counterpart Donald Trump said in an interview on Monday that war in Ukraine is being used to not hold an election.
“I am ready for the elections," Zelensky said while talking to reporters.
Ukraine is currently under martial law due to its war with Russia, which has been ongoing for almost four years now.
Zelensky said Ukrainian lawmakers have been asked to prepare "proposals regarding the possibility of amending the legislative foundations and the law on elections during martial law”, reported news agency AFP. However, he added that polls can only be held given that the security of the country can be assured and made a public plea to the United States to aid them conduct the polls along with their European allies.
"I am now asking, I declare this openly, for the United States of America to help me, possibly together with European colleagues, to ensure security for holding elections," he said.
Also read: Zelensky rejects ceding land to Russia as Trump pushes for reply to Ukraine peace plan
Zelensky’s remarks come after Trump said on Monday in an interview with Politico that he thought it was time to conduct elections in Ukraine. “...maybe Zelenskyy would win. I don’t know who would win. But they haven’t had an election in a long time. You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore,” he said.
‘No legal right of ceding territories’
Zelensky’s remarks on holding elections in Ukraine also come at a time when there’s mounting pressure on him from the United States to accept a deal formulated by the latter to bring peace in the country.
However, the US’ proposal has been viewed by Ukraine and its allies as favouring Russia more, particularly since its suggests surrendering Ukraine’s Donbas region to Russia in exchange for security guarantees which do not involve a full NATO membership
Over the last few days, Zelensky met several of his European allies to seek their support and also formulate a response for the US peace plan.
“We are working very actively on all components of potential steps toward ending the war. The Ukrainian and European components are now more developed, and we are ready to present them to our partners in the U.S. Together with the American side, we expect to swiftly make the potential steps as doable as possible,” the Ukrainian President said in a post on Tuesday.
“In the near future, we will be ready to send the refined documents to the United States,” he added.
He also said on Monday that after talks with the United States over the weekend, the latter’s original 28-point plan to bring peace in Ukraine was revised to just 20 points.
While talking about ceding territories in exchange for peace, Zelensky ruled out that possibility and said that they have no “legal” or “moral” right to do so under Ukrainian law, constitution and international law.
(With inputs from AFP)
