The US President is impatient to seal a peace deal with Russia, and has taken to blaming Zelensky and his European allies for holding up an agreement.
10:46, Wed, Dec 10, 2025 Updated: 10:50, Wed, Dec 10, 2025
Zelensky gave Trump a forthright response (Image: Getty)
Volodymyr Zelensky slapped down Donald Trump in a forthright riposte, after coming under increasing US pressure to hold elections in war torn Ukraine. The US President is impatient to seal a peace deal with Russia, and has taken to blaming Zelensky and his European allies for holding up an agreement.
Ukraine is refusing to cede the Donbas to Vladimir Putin in its entirety and is insisting on binding US security guarntees. European leaders say they fully support Kyiv and its negotiating position, as tensions with the White House increase. In a sign of his growing frustrations, Trump lashed out at Zelensky, accusing him of running scared over holding new elections.
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Donald Trump is turning up the heat on Zelensky (Image: Getty)
The US President told Politico that Ukraine had not held elections "in a long time" and "it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy any more.”
Zelensky took to the airwaves on Tuesday to issue his blunt reply to Trump's latest attempts to disparage and undermine him.
"This is a question for the people of Ukraine, not people from other states," he said.
Zelensky's five-year term expired in May last year, but Ukraine's constitution rules out elections in wartime. Moreover, opposition politicians have repeatedly said that security and political considerations do not allow for holding an election during wartime.
“It would only cause harm,” Serhiy Rakhmanin - an MP from the opposition Holos party - told The Guardian.
The Ukrainian President went on to say that he was ready to hold elections and would explore the possibilities for holding a vote in the coming months.
“Since this question is raised today by the president of the United States of America, our partners, I will answer very briefly: look, I am ready for elections,” he said.
However, he asked the US and Europe to help provide security for the elections to take place.
Trump's demands for new elections in Ukraine echo those of Putin, who has accused Zelensky of lacking "legitimacy".
The Russian leader claimed this would raise a legal obstacle if Russia and Ukraine were to hold peace talks.
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