Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed a resolution on Feb. 25 to hold elections after "a comprehensive, just, and sustainable peace is secured" in the country, lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said.
The decision was supported by 268 members of parliament (MPs), while 12 abstained, according to Zhelezniak. A day earlier, the parliament lacked the votes to approve the resolution on its first attempt.
The resolution to "support for democracy in Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression" stipulates that elections cannot be held under martial law, emphasizing the "need for continuity of leadership" in such circumstances.
The resolution comes after U.S. President Donald Trump called President Volodymyr Zelensky a "dictator" in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Feb. 19, accusing him of refusing to hold elections, and repeating false claims about the war in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is the only one who is responsible for making it impossible to hold "free, transparent, and democratic elections" in Ukraine with the participation of international observers, the resolution states.
"Martial law in Ukraine, introduced in response to Russia's full-scale invasion, does not allow for elections by Ukraine's Constitution of Ukraine. At the same time, the Ukrainian people are united in the opinion that such elections should be held after the war's end," the parliament declared.
Russia has widely used the claim that Zelensky is illegitimate in its propaganda to discredit the Ukrainian government. The false claim is based on the premise that Zelensky's first term in office was originally meant to end on May 20, 2024.
But Russia's full-scale invasion and the subsequent declaration of martial law in Ukraine has meant elections have been impossible to hold, and his term has been extended, something constitutional lawyers say is allowed under Ukrainian law.
Kateryna Denisova
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