Trump says calls for new elections in Ukraine come from his administration. ‘That’s not a Russia thing.’
In a press conference on Tuesday, Donald Trump said his administration, not Russian negotiators, is pushing Ukraine to hold elections to test Volodymyr Zelensky’s legitimacy as president. “When they want a seat at the table, you could say the people have to… wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have to say, like, ‘You know, it’s been a long time since we’ve had an election.’ That’s not a Russia thing. That’s something coming from me and coming from many other countries also,” the U.S. president told reporters.
Trump also claimed that Zelensky’s approval rating has fallen to “four percent.” However, The New York Times reported last month that Zelensky’s approval rating was at roughly 50 percent, though the newspaper noted that “it falls even lower in surveys that gauge his popularity against potential competitors if elections were held in the wake of a cease-fire agreement with Russia.”
Vladimir Putin has repeatedly dismissed Zelensky as an illegitimate leader, arguing that his elected term expired last spring. Ukraine’s presidential election was constitutionally scheduled for March 31, 2024, but the nation’s constitution prohibits holding elections under martial law, which Zelensky imposed in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
