Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is now ruling under martial law after his official 5-year term expired yesterday. Had the war with Russia come to an end, elections would have been held, according to the BBC.
Zelensky had last year warned that elections would not be held until the war with Russia was over, however made statements in August that Ukraine would hold elections if the US and Europe funded them despite the country being under martial law. He then decided in November that it was "not the right time for elections."
This continuation of power comes as Zelensky's approval ratings have fallen from when he was first elected. "According to closed opinion polls conducted by the Americans and Europeans, the level of support for Vladimir [sic] Zelensky has dropped to 17% and continues to decline," a report from Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service states. His approval rating was around 90 percent right after Russia's full-scale invasion.
However, the BBC reports that 65 percent of Ukrainians still trust the president to continue his leadership. Anton Hrushetskyi, the head of Kyiv's International Institute of Sociology stated: "For the Ukrainians, the priority is to win the war and then have an election. Therefore, they don’t question the legitimacy of Zelensky."
In October of last year, one of Zelensky's top aides reportedly claimed the president was delusional about winning the war and "exhausted" after meetings with US leaders to drum up more funding and support. Top officials in the Ukrainian military and government have ongoingly been accused of corruption, something that Zelensky has worked to tackle.
