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US President Donald Trump has said that Ukraine needs to hold elections, as, according to him, the level of support for incumbent President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has allegedly dropped to 4%. He also said that Russia allegedly wants to end the war. Trump said this during a press conference in Mar-a-Lago after talks between the US and Russia in Riyadh, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
Trump stressed that it was not Moscow that was demanding the elections, but an “objective situation” that required it, as presidential elections in Ukraine were not held due to the imposition of martial law. As a reminder, the last presidential election in Ukraine took place in April 2019, and the next one was due on 31 March 2024, but the election process was suspended due to the war.
Trump called the war “senseless” and said that Russia allegedly wants to stop it because “Russian troops are dying by the thousands every week”. He also mentioned that the Korean military is also fighting at the front, although he did not specify the source of this information.
The US president also said that the conflict could have been resolved “a few years ago, even without an experienced negotiator”, and that “Ukraine and Russia had three years to sit down at the negotiating table”. He expressed confidence that the war would not have started under his presidency.
In addition, Trump supported the idea of deploying European peacekeepers in Ukraine, but stressed that the US military would not be deployed there. He mentioned that the initiative was proposed by France, and other European countries, including the UK, have expressed their readiness. According to him, if a peace agreement is reached, the presence of European troops could contribute to stability.
At the same time, Interfax-Ukraine notes that Trump did not specify the source of his statement about Zelenskyy’s 4% support. According to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) in December 2024, 52% of Ukrainians surveyed trusted Zelenskyy, 39% did not, and 9% were undecided.
