Ukraine – In response to the Kremlin, US President Donald Trump is demanding that any peace deal include national elections in Ukraine, while referring to the Ukrainian president as a “dictator.”
“That’s not a Russia thing. Trump made the false claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has a 4 percent approval rating while also claiming that it is coming from me and many other countries.
Moscow has said Zelenskyy’s five-year term was supposed to end in May and, therefore, he does not have the legal authority to sign a peace deal.
Following Russia’s extensive invasion of the East European nation nearly three years ago, martial law was passed in the former Soviet republic, which forbade free elections during the war.
Zelenskyy hit back on Wednesday against Trump’s comments, saying: “If someone wants to replace me right away, it’s not possible right away”.
“If we are talking about 4 percent, then we’ve seen this disinformation. We understand that it comes from Russia, and we have evidence”, he said in televised remarks.
As of the first half of February, according to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, 57 percent of Ukrainians trust Zelenskyy as their president.
Spreading a pro-Russia ‘ illusion ‘
Aleksey Kushch, a journalist based in Kyiv, claimed that Moscow’s motivations for putting pressure on Ukrainian elections are more about control than promotion of the country’s electoral rights.
The Kremlin wants Ukraine to have “a government that will be more obedient, that will sign the]peace] deals the US will have drafted with Russia”, Kushch told Al Jazeera.
Another Kyiv-based analyst, Vyacheslav Likhachyov, said Putin is tying elections to the peace deal to spread the “illusion” that most Ukrainians are pro-Russian.
“Perhaps]Putin] really thinks that a pro-Russian candidate may win in Ukraine to deliver the nation to the Kremlin on a platter”, he told Al Jazeera, adding that Russia also hopes to create divides within Ukraine.
Russia will profit from “the unavoidable political polemics that accompany compromising leaks and discussions about who is to blame for our problems,” Likhachyov said.
Putin said he “would emotionally prefer to deal with somebody else, anybody else,” adding that Trump views the Ukrainian leader as a barrier.
Any other Ukrainian official who is willing to give Ukraine to Putin on his own accord would appeal to Trump, he said, adding that “Zelenskyy also irks him emotionally.”
Voting not viable
Despite Putin and Trump’s real intentions, it is unlikely that the more than 6 million Ukrainians who reside in regions under Russian rule will vote in elections.
In a report released in March, the UN accused Russia of infecting eastern Ukraine by describing instances of torture, arbitrariness, and the suppression of Ukrainian identity and culture.
Additionally, it would be difficult for the millions of Ukrainian refugees who are scattered around the world to travel to Ukrainian consulates and embassies.
Some people have moved to smaller European towns or villages for less money on rent and supplies, such as Hanna Glushko. According to her mother, 79, and two sons, four and nine, who are living in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Glushko and her family fled Kharkiv to the Austrian town of Eisenertz in 2022.
“How am I going to leave my children, and how is my sick mom going to travel to Vienna”? Glushko asked.
And to carry out elections, Ukraine would have to end martial law, giving Russia an edge and the opportunity to take even more territory, Likhachyov said.
Russia launched ballistic missiles and 167 drones into central and southern Ukraine on Tuesday, causing injuries to four people, including one child, and slowed Odesa’s heat and power supplies.
‘ Cat and mouse ‘
Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Kyiv-based Penta think tank, called the election demands unrealistic and accused Russia of “tactically prolonging” peace talks to force the White House into making concessions.
According to Fesenko, Moscow wants to “seduce” Trump with multibillion dollar deals, including the return of US oil companies to Russia and their involvement in the Arctic’s mineral development.
“Russians are flexible. In their words, it’s all about flattery and compliments for Trump, but in their practice, when it comes to real talks, they play cat and mouse with Americans”, he told Al Jazeera.
History repeating itself
For many Ukrainians, Trump’s election demand along with his false accusation that Ukraine started the conflict with Russia , were met with defiance and anger.
Iryna, a servicewoman in Odesa’s southern city, criticized Trump and Russia for trying to deceive and distract her country and supports Zelenskyy and his government.
She told Al Jazeera, “The election is about extra expenses and will distract Ukraine from our biggest problem, the war.” Zelenskyy has been putting an end to the war because of how he has handled it.
Military personnel are not permitted to tell the media their full names and positions under Ukrainian Ministry of Defense rules.
Iryna recalled the election-related external pressure from early 2014, when a pro-Russian president was ousted and an interim government led by parliament speaker Oleksandr Turchynov.
Tens of thousands of service members were dispatched to Crimea by the Kremlin to seize control of government buildings and military installations. Turchynov’s government instructed Ukrainian servicemen and police officers not to resist the takeover, and the inaction led to Moscow’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula.
For Vyacheslav, 29, who joined the army in 2022 and is now recovering from a wounded leg, the rhetoric of the White House and the Kremlin reminds him of another dark period in Europe’s history.
According to Vyacheslav, “It’s disgusting to see how they are getting ready to divide Ukraine in the manner that Stalin and Hitler did Poland in 1939,” he said of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a nonaggression treaty between Russia and Germany.
Source: Aljazeera
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