Mediaboss Marketing

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday he does not believe it is the right time for elections, amid a debate among the countrys leaders on the possibility of a presidential vote in 2024.

All elections including the presidential vote set to take place next spring are technically cancelled under martial law that has been in effect since the war began last year.

We must decide that now is the time of defence, the time of battle, on which the fate of the state and people depends, Zelensky said in his daily address.

He said it was a time for the country to be united, not divided, and added: I believe that now is not the (right) time for elections.

03:42

Ukraine says Russian strike killed over 50 in one of the deadliest attacks of the war

Ukraine says Russian strike killed over 50 in one of the deadliest attacks of the war

He cautioned that polling would be difficult to hold due to the large number of Ukrainians abroad and soldiers fighting on the front.

Parliamentary elections that would have taken place last month were also cancelled due to the war.

Zelensky, who was elected in 2019, said in September he was ready to hold elections if it was necessary and was in favour of allowing international observers to monitor the vote.

The Ukrainian leaders approval rating skyrocketed after the war began, but the countrys political landscape has remained fractious despite the unifying force of the war.

Former presidential aide Oleksiy Arestovych announced this week that he would run against his former boss, after criticising Zelensky over the slow pace of the countrys counteroffensive.

Zelensky not ready for Russia talks; Ukraine investigates deadly strike

On Monday, Ukraines commander-in-chief said his assistant, a major in rank, was killed when a booby-trapped birthday present he had been given exploded.

My assistant and close friend, Major Hennady Chastyakov, was killed in tragic circumstances on his birthday in a family setting, General Valery Zaluzhny wrote on the Telegram messaging app. An unknown explosive device went off in one of his presents.

The Ukrainska Pravda online news outlet said a security source was told by Chastyakovs wife that the gift was a bottle of liquor in the form of a grenade that he had brought home. It exploded when he opened it.

Chastyakovs 13-year-old son suffered serious injuries.

The source told Ukrainska Pravda that Chastyakov, 39, was a graduate of a military academy and fully trained in handling grenades.

Zaluzhny has had a high profile in the more than 20-month-old Russian invasion. Last week, he wrote an essay in the Economist magazine saying the war had entered a new phase of attrition that was to Russias advantage and calling for more sophisticated technology for Ukraines military.

EU weighs advancing Ukraines membership bid as Russia war drags on

The sprawling front line between the two warring sides has barely moved in almost a year, despite Ukraine launching a counteroffensive back in June to claw back Russian-occupied territory.

On Monday Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had successfully destroyed a major Russian ship in the Kerch shipyard in annexed Crimea.

The Ukrainian president has regularly met Western leaders to try to secure more air defences and stave off international fatigue with the conflict, which has now lasted for more that 600 days.

Zelensky has also been forced to deny that the conflict has reached a deadlock, but admitted on Sunday that it had reached a difficult situation.

Additional reporting by Reuters

Link:
Ukraines Zelensky says it is not the time for elections - South China Morning Post