(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) On Tuesday, President Trump called for elections to be held in Ukraine and said it was an idea coming from him, not the Russians.
“We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he’s down to 4% approval rating,” Trump told reporters.
It’s unclear where Trump got the 4% number, but a poll conducted in Ukraine in November 2024 found that just 16% of Ukrainians would vote to re-elect Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and 60% of respondents said they didn’t even want him to run.
“If Ukraine wants a seat at the table, wouldn’t the people have to say – it has been a long time since they had an election?” Trump said. “That’s not a Russian thing, that’s something coming from me and coming from many other countries also.”
As I predicted, Trump states that he wants elections in Ukraine & suggests that Zelensky would lose elections because he has 4% approval. My research suggests that Zelensky has very low electoral support. His 16% electoral support in 2024 poll was inflated & is lower now. I said… pic.twitter.com/bd4v9q78y7
— Ivan Katchanovski (@I_Katchanovski) February 18, 2025
Zelensky’s term in office expired in May 2024, but he remained in power since he didn’t hold elections. Ukraine’s parliament has also been due for an election since October 2023.
Ukrainian officials have justified not holding elections by pointing to Ukraine’s constitution, which prohibits a vote during martial law. Martial law was first declared when Russia invaded and has been extended since.
However, Zelensky made it clear at one point that he could have held an election if he wanted to, suggesting that it could happen if the US and other Western countries paid for it. But, the Biden administration did not put any pressure on Zelensky to hold an election and helped justify the decision.
The president also went after Zelensky over his complaints that Ukraine was excluded from the talks between the US and Russia that occurred earlier in the day in Saudi Arabia, which Trump said went very well.
“Today I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited,” Trump said. “Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it — three years. You should have never been there. You should have never started it. You should have made a deal.”
Zelensky happens to be in the Middle East as part of an unrelated tour and was due to visit Saudi Arabia on Wednesday but decided to cancel over the US-Russia talks. “We were not invited to this Russian-American meeting in Saudi Arabia. It was a surprise for us, I think for many others as well,” Zelensky told reporters in Turkey.
I don’t know who will stay, who will leave, or who is planning to go where. To be honest, I don’t care,” he added. “I don’t want coincidences, and that’s why I will not go to Saudi Arabia.”
This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.
