Zelenskyy says he will run if wartime elections are held

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he will take part in presidential elections if Ukraine is able to hold them before the war ends, telling NBC’s Meet the Press that if a vote takes place during the war he will of course run, because defending his country from the beginning of the war to its end is his responsibility. He said Ukraine would otherwise need six months after the war ends to prepare for elections, and repeated his condition for a wartime vote: at least 60 days of ceasefire, with no other negotiations, so Ukraine can change the law and prepare the security infrastructure, adding that soldiers must be able to vote and that it is not true that he does not want elections.

In the same interview, Zelenskyy said that if the United States officially took Russia’s side, Ukraine would not win and could not withstand, calling such a move a historic mistake and a great tragedy, and said he hopes President Trump will change his decisions and his attitude toward President Vladimir Putin. Asked whether Trump is still Ukraine’s ally, he said he hopes so, and asked whether Ukraine can win, he said of course, because truth is on its side, defining victory as preserving the country, its independence and its European choice.