Zelensky accepts elections, but imposes condition: 60-day ceasefire

O president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, replied this Sunday to Donald Trump, who called for Ukraine to elect a new leader, stating that his country could hold elections if Russia agreed to a total ceasefire of 60 days.

“ First of all, with all due respect to President Trump, it is up to our society, our people, to choose one leader or another,” Zelensky told ABC News during an interview, the day after Trump claimed that Ukraine needed a new president willing to negotiate the end of the war.

Then the president of Ukraine confessed that he already told Trump’s team that if they really want Ukraine to hold elections, “please tell Putin to grant us two months, 60 days of total ceasefire, 60 days, and we will hold the elections.”.

The U.S. President criticized Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday, stating that it is “ Ukraine’s time to have a new president” to end the war with Russia, stressing that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants the “resolution” of the conflict.

“ I suggest you elect a new leader capable of reaching an agreement,” said the US President before the press in the White House, condemning the Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, which, according to Trump, only aggravate “the world’s problem” of diesel shortages.

“It is in your interest to stop,” Donald Trump warned, addressing the Ukrainian President, in a reference to the announcement of a controversial agreement between Moscow and Washington for the large-scale purchase of Russian diesel.

The agreement is seen as a way of partially relieving US consumers less than a month of mid-term elections crucial to the future of the American billionaire's mandate, by constituting a palliative for rising fuel prices in the United States since the start of the war launched on 28 February against Iran by Trump and the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

The U.S. President also said that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, with whom he spoke on the phone on Friday, wishes to “veedly” “to reach an agreement” to end the war with Ukraine.

Prior to Trump’s inflamed statements, Volodymyr Zelensky had denounced the Russian-North American agreement as a “weak decision” on the part of the United States and a lucrative opportunity for Russia to replenish reserves and finance the war.

[News updated at 3:16 p.m.]