During a Monday night address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that it is “not the right time for elections” in Ukraine, the Hill reports.
Zelensky is approaching the end of his five-year term but argued that elections should not yet be held so as to not distract from the ongoing war with Russia.
This comes after he told US Senator Lindsay Graham in August Ukraine would hold elections if the US and Europe funded them despite the country being under martial law.
He said he told Graham that “if the United States and Europe give us financial support... if the parliamentarians realize that we need to do this, then let's quickly change the legislation and, most importantly, let's take risks together.”
He had also made statements earlier this year that no Ukranian elections would be held until the war with Russia is over.
In his address Monday he concluded: “And finally, the waves of any politically divisive things must stop. We must realize that now is the time of defense, the time of the battle that determines the fate of the state and people, not the time of manipulations, which only Russia expects from Ukraine. I believe that now is not the right time for elections.”
“And if we need to put an end to a political dispute and continue to work in unity, there are structures in the state that are capable of putting an end to it and giving society all the necessary answers. So that there is no room left for conflicts and someone else’s game against Ukraine,” he said.
