Politics & Diplomacy
Zelensky on ABC: “60 days of total ceasefire, and we will organize elections”; the choice of leader is for Ukrainians, he tells Trump
Responding to Donald Trump’s call for a new president, Volodymyr Zelensky told ABC’s This Week on October 11 that only Ukrainians choose their leader and that with 60 days of total ceasefire Ukraine could organize elections.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has responded to Donald Trump’s statement that Ukraine needs a new president, saying that only the Ukrainian people choose their country’s leader. In an interview with ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday, October 11, he proposed 60 days of total ceasefire so that elections could be organized.
“It is up to our people”
“First of all, with all respect to President Trump, it’s up to our society, up to our people to choose one or another leader,” Zelensky said. He recalled that Ukraine is at war, which makes holding elections difficult.
According to the Ukrainian president, the problem is not only that elections today would be “absolutely unsafe” and contrary to Ukrainian law and the Constitution. Secure infrastructure is also needed so that citizens can vote. The presidential election was due in spring 2024 but was postponed under the martial law in force since Russia’s full-scale invasion of February 2022. Ukrainian law does not allow elections while martial law is in effect, millions of Ukrainians are displaced or living abroad, and others are at the front.
The proposal for a 60-day ceasefire
Zelensky said he had discussed the matter with Trump’s team. If Trump really wants Ukraine to hold elections, he said he had told them: “please tell Putin, give us two months, 60 days of total ceasefire, 60 days, and we will organize elections”, as Reuters quoted him. He added that Ukraine would be ready for whatever choice the Ukrainian people make.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that Zelensky has the people’s support and that only the people have the right to decide. In the same interview Zelensky had expressed support for a pause in attacks on energy infrastructure.
Diesel, ceasefire and pressure
Trump decided to strike a deal with Russia on diesel after Zelensky refused to stop attacks on Russian refineries unilaterally. On Sunday Trump announced that an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine had taken effect and called on both sides not to violate it. Kyiv said it knew of no such agreement. A Ukrainian delegation had earlier travelled to the United States for talks on an energy ceasefire.
The Kremlin has meanwhile described Zelensky as “hysterical”, and there has been no Russian response to the 60-day proposal in the sources available at the time of writing.
