Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv would like to end the war with Russia next year through “diplomatic means” as both countries prepare for President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
In an interview with the Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne, Zelenskyy said he is certain that the war will end “sooner” than it otherwise would have once Mr. Trump becomes president.
The prospect of Trump returning to power in the United States next year has raised questions about the future of the conflict, as the Republican has been critical of U.S. military aid to Kyiv.
Zelenskyy said that Ukraine “must do everything so that this war ends next year, ends through diplomatic means.”
Ok but that doesn’t change that they’re being actively invaded by Russia right now. That does tend to put a pretty big damper on a country’s ability to conduct secure elections.
Do you believe the elections in Russia are held fairly? I was under the impression that there are a lot of issues with political repression and electrical fraud, but admit that some of those notions could be more propaganda than reality. I’ll be reading more into Russian electoral politics and history in the meanwhile.
From what I read so far, it looks like Russia actually did hold elections for their own government within occupied Ukrainian territory. I’m not sure what to make of that.
Putin seems to be genuinely popular, so how fair the last presidential election was is somewhat moot. I think he had a clear majority regardless. Russians have good reason to like him: he kicked the Western capitalist neoliberal shock therapy plunderers out of the country. It’s still a capitalist shithole, but at least it’s their shithole and not a neocolonized state anymore.
I can’t speak to the quality of those elections. Eastern Ukraine had been in a civil war with western Ukraine for almost a decade, and many eastern Ukrainians wanted a Russian intervention, but I’m no expert and couldn’t say what percentage wanted one. Back in 2014, Crimea was very easy to annex, because most Crimeans wanted to be annexed. And they fared better than their friends to their north, who suffered almost a decade of attacks by western Ukrainian Banderites.