FT: Zelensky to announce elections and referendum on peace deal under US pressure

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has agreed to hold a presidential election and a referendum on a peace deal with Russia, The Financial Times (FT) reported on Wednesday, amid “intense pressure” being applied to Kyiv by Washington to hold both votes by May.

According to several unnamed Ukrainian and Western officials familiar with the matter, Zelensky will announce the plans on 24 February, the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, with the votes to be held by a 15 May deadline set by US President Donald Trump, the FT reported.

Last month, Zelensky said that a US agreement on post-war security guarantees to protect Ukraine from future Russian attacks was “100% ready” for signing, but the Trump administration has now indicated that those are contingent on Kyiv agreeing to a peace deal this spring “that would probably involve ceding the Donbas region to Russia”, the FT said.

Zelensky’s team has signalled the Ukrainian president’s readiness to work with the “extraordinarily swift” timeline of ending the war this spring, the FT said, as Trump seeks to shift his focus from international issues to domestic affairs ahead of November’s midterm elections.

The logistics of holding a presidential election in Ukraine at such short notice are likely to prove extremely challenging, however, as the country’s constitution does not allow the holding of elections under martial law — which was declared in Ukraine on 24 February 2022 — and so would require passing a constitutional amendment.

The plan is also contingent on whether Zelensky is able to secure a “peace deal that he believes is fair and tolerable to Ukrainians”, the FT stressed.

The election and referendum could also be delayed if Russia “escalates its attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and ground offensive in the southeast”, the FT said, while the issue of who will ultimately control Donbas and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant also remains a significant obstacle to peace.

On Friday, Zelensky told reporters that Washington was pushing Moscow and Kyiv to finalise a peace deal by June and that the Trump administration wanted a “clear schedule of all events” related to ending the war.

Reuters later reported that the US and Ukraine had also discussed a far more ambitious goal of reaching a peace agreement by March, with one source telling the news agency that “the Americans are in a hurry”.