 "US President Donald Trump. AFP file")
US President Donald Trump has indicated that Ukraine should hold elections as part of a peace deal with Russia after Moscow and Washington concluded the first round of talks on the war.
In his first public remark after the discussions in Riyadh on the Russia-Ukraine war that did not include Kyiv, Trump said, “You know, they want a seat at the table. You could say the people have to, wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have to say, like, it’s been a long time since we’ve had an election.”
Snapping at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy , saying that the “war should have never started”, POTUS added, “That’s not a Russia thing. That’s something coming from me and coming from many other countries. “You have leadership [in Ukraine] now that’s allowed a war to go on that should have never even happened.”
Why is Ukraine not holding polls?
Ukraine should have held elections last year as Zelenskyy’s term expired but Kyiv has said that no polls will be conducted in the war-battered nation until fighting stops and martial law is lifted.
Conducting elections soon would be highly challenging due to the displacement of millions of Ukrainians, many of whom are living abroad or in regions under Russian control. Kyiv has also raised security concerns, stating that a security force or Western peacekeepers would be necessary to safeguard voters during the process.
A survey carried out last year by the International Republican Institute showed that 60 per cent of the respondents were opposed to holding a presidential election as the war ravages on.
David Arakhamia, leader of Zelenskyy’s ruling party in parliament, stated this month that elections should take place no sooner than six months after martial law is lifted.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsMinutes of the meeting
Top US and Russian officials had their most extensive high-level engagement since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine almost three years ago.
In Riyadh, the delegations led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agreed to set up teams to look into restoring staffing at the U.S. and Russian embassies in Moscow and Washington that have been decimated by a series of tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions.
The effort is aimed at using those channels to support Ukraine peace negotiations and to explore ways to restart economic and global cooperation. A Russian official pointed to possible joint energy ventures.
The two sides agreed to set up high-level working groups to begin exploring a negotiated end to the conflict. It was not immediately clear when these teams would first meet, but both said it would be soon.
With inputs from AP