‘Replacing Me Won’t be Easy’: Zelensky Says He’d Just Get Elected Again in Fresh Ukraine Elections

Ukraine’s lack of elections has been cited as a concern by some Western figures as President Donald Trump tries to bring peace to the region, but President Volodymyr Zelensky insists he’s so popular you’d have to ban him from office to prevent him returning to power.

Ukraine’s President Zelensky held court at London’s Stanstead airport on Sunday, the latest stop in his version of intense shuttle diplomacy, and among comments made, he rejected calls for him to call fresh elections in his country to refresh its democratic legitimacy.

Calling fresh elections is pointless because, he claimed, Volodymyr Zelensky is so popular in Ukraine he’d simply be re-elected again anyway.

Given his level of support, Zelensky said per a translation provided at the conference, “to replace me will not be easy” because to guarantee a new President you’d have to block him from appearing on the ballot.

Zelensky said: “It’s not enough to simply hold elections. You need to prevent me from running”. So whether elections are held or not, the West will ultimately still have to “negotiate with me”.

The Ukrainian government has previously taken this line when defending itself from accusations that, given its national elections for the presidency and parliament are now a year overdue it backsliding on democracy. Indeed, Kyiv has insisted its own research shows Zelensky remains extremely popular with a high approval rating at home.

As noted, however, it is hard to accept these assertions at face value, given Ukraine is a country under martial law, criticising its President can invite punishment, millions of its citizens are abroad as refugees or live under Russian occupation, and political parties with anti-war or pro-Russian views have been banned, with some opposition politicians even killed in targeted assassinations in the course of the war.

There are arguments made for why holding elections in wartime is difficult and the United Kingdom, for instance, was quick to tell Ukraine it supported their decision to suspend democracy in wartime against President Trump’s comments, but critics say it is perfectly possible if the Ukrainian government actually wanted to try. Elections with large, eligible-to-vote diasporas abroad and even elections during wartime with millions of men under arms have been successfully conducted by democracies in the past.

Elections suspended or not, Zelensky accused “other countries” — the United States, context suggests — of being undemocratic by trying to tell the Ukrainian people who their President should be. He continued: “honestly it looks like the citizens of other countries are telling Ukrainians which president they should have, especially when these people occupy official posts, it seems to be a bit undemocratic, unconstructive. We are talking about values, and it definitely doesn’t look democratic.”