Presidential elections in Ukraine have once again become a much discussed topic since US President Donald Trump reproached his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy for not holding the vote.

"They're using war not to hold an election, but I would think the Ukrainian people... should have that choice. And maybe Zelenskyy would win,” Trump said in a recent interview with the media outlet Politico, adding it was time for Ukraine to hold a vote since "they haven't had an election in a long time." He said it was even getting to a "point where it's not a democracy anymore."

Zelenskyy: Ukraine will hold elections if conditions are safe

Zelenskyy responded to Trump's remarks by stating that the question of elections in Ukraine depends primarily on the Ukrainian people.

"This is an issue for the people of Ukraine, not for people of other countries. With all due respect to our partners," the Ukrainian president said during an online briefing, while answering a journalist's question about whether the US was pressuring Ukraine to hold elections.

At the same time, he said he would be ready for presidential elections if international partners could ensure safe conditions.

"I am now asking the United States of America, together with European colleagues if needed, to help me ensure security for holding elections, and then within the next 60 to 90 days Ukraine will be ready to hold them. I personally have the will and readiness for this." 

He added that a few issues must be resolved for elections to take place - like protection from Russia's ongoing shelling and ensuring that Ukrainian soldiers could take part in the vote.

Another problem, Zelenskyy added, was the legal basis required to ensure the legitimacy of the vote. He said he would ask members of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, to prepare proposals enabling changes to electoral legislation to allow for elections during martial law.

'First peace, then elections'

Political reactions followed quickly.

"First peace, then elections,” wrote Oleksiy Honcharenko, an opposition MP from the European Solidarity party, on Telegram.

The Ukrainian parliament has long made its position clear that elections during war are impossible, said Yevheniia Kravchuk, deputy chair of the parliamentary faction of the Servant of the People party, which holds a majority in the Verkhovna Rada. She added that a ceasefire and a stable peace were prerequisites for holding a new election.

"Elections are not just the day of voting, when everyone arrives and everything magically happens. Not to mention that every day and every night hundreds of drones and missiles are flying at Ukraine, destroying infrastructure, including places where elections could be held. There are threats to life, power outages, and a million people at the front — obviously they will not abandon their positions to campaign or vote," Kravchuk said on Ukrainian national television.

Legitimacy of elections without a ceasefire

Oleksiy Koshel, the head of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, an NGO, noted that there were unresolved issues such as organizing voting abroad, updating the voter registry and enabling internally displaced persons to vote. Most importantly, he said, was the question of how to ensure voting rights and the chance to run for office for military sevice personnel.

Raising the topic of elections before hostilities end and a peace agreement is signed created an additional lever of pressure on Ukraine — by Russia and by some international partners, he argued, warning that if elections became part of negotiations, Russia would try as hard as possible to disrupt them or reduce turnout.

"Elections require real steps and time," Koshel told DW. "It takes years to resolve major issues. Including elections in peace talks is a serious threat that plays directly into Russia's hands. There is a real risk of mass fake bomb threats at polling stations, cyberattacks, and interference. Disrupting elections is hard, but reducing turnout to later claim the government is illegitimate — Russia is very good at that." 

Ukraine's constitution forbids elections during martial law

Andriy Mahera, a constitutional law expert at the Center of Policy and Legal Reform, a Ukrainian think tank, and a former deputy chair of Ukraine's Central Election Commission, emphasized that elections could not be held during martial law because the constitution explicitly forebade it, and moreover could not be amended during martial law. Therefore, elections would only be possible after a peace agreement was signed, the war ended and martial law was lifted.

He added that elections would only be considered legitimate if they followed international democratic standards — when voters can freely form their opinion without fear or coercion, including fear caused by war, and freely express their will at polling stations.

"If Ukrainian elections are not held in line with international standards, their recognition will be questioned both at home and abroad. This is exactly what Putin wants. He will be the first to cynically claim he does not recognize the elections because they were not held properly — even though he will be the one firing missiles at polling stations," Mahera said.

Pressure on Trump from Russia?

Ukrainian experts believe Russia is pushing Trump to pressure Ukraine to hold elections before the end of the war, hoping to destabilize the country and secure a peace deal with a potentially more accommodating president.

Political analyst Mykola Davydiuk argued that Trump's demand for elections in Ukraine ignored the real circumstances and constitutional constraints. He stressed that elections were a purely domestic issue and cannot be dictated from abroad.

In a comment to DW, Davydiuk also pointed out double standards regarding democracy:

"If Trump demands elections from Ukraine, why is he not demanding the same from Russia? Why not ensure that people like [opposition politician and chess grandmaster Garry] Kasparov and other opposition figures can participate in Russian elections? Why only Putin? Why accuse us of not holding elections for six years, when Russia hasn't had real elections for 20 years — and that seems fine?"

For him, the demand to hold elections during wartime is an attempt to increase pressure and a way to weaken Ukraine before peace negotiations.

This article was originally written in Ukrainian