Dec 10 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday he had discussed with Ukraine’s parliament legal and other issues linked to the possibility of holding an election, and urged other countries, including the United States, not to apply pressure on the issue.
Zelenskiy said on Tuesday he was prepared to hold elections within three months if the U.S. and Kyiv’s other allies could ensure the security of the vote.
He was responding to comments by U.S. President Donald Trump suggesting Ukraine’s government was using the war as an excuse to avoid elections.
Zelenskiy, speaking in his nightly video address, said he had held a “substantive discussion” with members of parliament, adding he would allow “no speculation against Ukraine”.
“If partners, including our key partner in Washington, speak so much and so specifically about elections in Ukraine, about elections under martial law, then we must provide legal Ukrainian answers to every question and every doubt,” he said.
“It is not easy, but pressure on this issue is definitely not what we need. I expect members of parliament to put forward their views. Security challenges depend on partners, primarily America. Political and legal challenges must be answered by Ukraine. And they will be,” Zelenskiy said.
Wartime elections are barred by law but Zelenskiy, whose term expired last year, is facing renewed pressure from Trump to hold a vote. Russian President Vladimir Putin has long denounced Zelenskiy as an “illegitimate” negotiating partner for failing to submit to an election.
Ukraine is seeking strong security guarantees from its allies as part of a agreement to end the war, now approaching its fourth anniversary.
Zelenskiy and other officials have dismissed the idea of holding elections with frequent Russian air strikes across the country, nearly a million troops at the front and millions more Ukrainians displaced.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Okleksandr Kozhukhar; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Berkrot)
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