Zelenskyy explains when martial law lifted and elections held in Ukraine
Photo: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
Martial law in Ukraine will be lifted only after the war ends. Elections will then be held in accordance with the law, according to a statement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a briefing.
Answering a question about whether martial law would be lifted after a truce, Zelenskyy noted that the focus should now be on the first steps, namely achieving a ceasefire.
"Are we ready for a ceasefire, for silence? We have taken concrete steps and said, 'yes.' The question is whether the Russian side will be ready for this," the president stated.
The second issue, according to Zelenskyy, is whether Ukraine’s partners are prepared for technical monitoring.
"This is a very important aspect. I have openly said that I see silence in the sky and at sea as something we can clearly monitor. But if we are talking about silence everywhere — understanding who we are dealing with and considering the experience of past years — then technical assistance is needed. Our partners assure us of this. The sides have discussed it, and this is very important," Zelenskyy noted.
The president added that a step-by-step plan for ending the war, with security guarantees for Ukraine, would still need to be fully prepared after this.
"If all this is done, then after preparing this plan, there will in any case be a phased implementation leading to the end of the war. After the war ends, martial law will be lifted. And after martial law is lifted, elections will be held in accordance with Ukrainian law. No one will deliberately postpone anything," the head of state emphasized.
Elections in Ukraine
In February, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, stated that the United States wants Kyiv to hold elections by the end of 2025, especially if a truce with Russia is reached.
Earlier, RBC-Ukraine reported that after a meeting between US and Russian representatives in Saudi Arabia, Trump claimed that trust in Zelenskyy in Ukraine was only 4%. Later, he went so far as to call the Ukrainian leader a "dictator without elections." However, the US president later told a journalist that he could not believe he had said such a thing.
According to Western media, however, the Ukrainian and American delegations did not discuss elections in Ukraine during their meeting in Saudi Arabia on March 11. The key topic of the meeting was ending the war in Ukraine.
