Following criticism from US President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that he was ready to hold an election within the next 60 to 90 days if allies could guarantee the security of the vote.
“We are ready for elections,” Zelenskiy told reporters on a plane leaving Italy after meeting with the Italian prime minister and Pope Leo.
“Not only that, but I, along with my European colleagues, have asked the United States for help in securing our elections, and I am now publicly declaring this,” he added.
His comments came after an interview in which the US president told Politico that he believed Ukraine’s leadership was using the war as an excuse to “not hold an election” and said it was time for the country to go to the polls.
“They’re talking about democracy, but it’s gotten to the point where it’s no longer a democracy,” Trump told Politico.
The Ukrainian leader pushed back on suggestions he was clinging to power, saying security was his biggest concern.
“How can they do this under missile attacks on our troops? The question is how they will vote,” he said.
Zelenskiy added that he is asking Ukrainian lawmakers to prepare legislative proposals on how to make elections possible even under martial law.
He also warned that the issue was “not for the citizens of other countries, but for the people of Ukraine.”
“With all due respect to our partners, I say frankly that we are ready for elections,” Zelenskiy added.
The development came after several days of talks between Ukraine and its allies aimed at ensuring an end to the nearly four-year war.
Following talks with European leaders this week, Zelenskiy said he expects Ukraine to submit an updated peace plan to the United States on Wednesday.
“We’re working today and we’ll be working tomorrow. I think we’ll hand it over tomorrow,” he said on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, he said Ukraine and its European allies were almost ready to send a “sophisticated” peace proposal to the United States, after consulting with the leaders of Britain, France and Germany in London on Monday.
In an interview with Politico, Trump accused Zelensky of not reading the latest US proposals. When asked about the accusations on Tuesday, Zelenskiy told reporters that he had read multiple versions of the plan and that the Ukrainian team was still making changes to it. He said it is important that Ukraine and the United States hold a leadership-level meeting on the plan “in the coming weeks, next week, maybe within a week.”
Zelenskiy said three different documents are being discussed between the United States and Europe.
One document is an evolving 20-point framework for peace. The second issue is about ensuring safety, he said.
Regarding the second document, President Zelenskiy said: “We are working on this. We are waiting for relevant proposals from the military and dialogue with the US military.”
According to Zelensky, the third document concerns the reconstruction of Ukraine. The president said such efforts should take place after the war ends or a ceasefire is secured.
Mr. Zelenskyy and his officials continue to hold talks with European allies, but President Trump’s increasingly confrontational attitude toward Europe has raised questions about the region’s role in the Ukraine peace plan.
On Tuesday, Pope Leo expressed concern about President Trump’s recent peace plan for Ukraine, suggesting it would weaken the U.S.-European alliance.
The Pope said the plan marked “a major change in what has long been a true alliance between Europe and the United States.” The U.S. president’s recent statements seem to be “trying to dismantle what should be a very important alliance now and in the future,” the pope added.
Pope Leo did not specify which comments by President Trump he was referring to. But in recent days, President Trump’s new national security strategy has been released, including a more confrontational stance toward Europe.
The document criticizes European governments for supporting Ukraine and accuses “European officials with unrealistic expectations of war” of standing in the way of peace.
The Pope emphasized the importance of Europe’s role in ensuring peace in Ukraine.
“It would be unrealistic to try to reach a peace agreement without including Europe in the negotiations, so to speak, because this is a war in Europe. I think Europe has to be part of the security that is needed now and in the future,” he said.
Meanwhile, President Zelenskiy also acknowledged that Ukraine does not have the strength to take back Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
Asked whether he had told Putin during their first meeting in Paris in 2019 that he wanted Crimea to be returned and Ukraine to join NATO, he said: “To be honest, today we don’t have the strength and we don’t have enough support for all of this.”
The first and only meeting between President Zelenskiy and President Putin since taking over as Ukraine’s leader was an attempt to end the conflict in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, a little more than two years before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
US President Donald Trump mentioned the meeting in an interview with Politico.
“I probably said that at the first meeting, and I believe I was right,” Zelenskiy recalled, adding that Ukraine currently does not have the ability to take back Crimea.
CNN’s Christopher Lamb and Kit Maher contributed to this report.
