President Donald Trump appeared to take a swipe at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by reiterating his call for elections, despite Ukraine’s wartime prohibition against them.
The remarks come as Washington works to secure a deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
“They haven’t had an election in a long time,” Trump told Politico. “You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.”
It’s not the first time that Trump has called for Ukraine to hold elections. In February, Trump sparked controversy when he referred to Zelenskyy as a “dictator without elections” in a Truth Social post.
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“He refuses to have elections, is very low in Ukrainian polls and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle.’ A dictator without elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a country left,” Trump wrote.
A few days after the post, Zelenskyy visited the White House, where he had an infamous clash with Trump and Vice President JD Vance. The three men sparred over the war as Zelenskyy attempted to paint it as a possible threat to the U.S., something Trump and Vance rejected.
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On Tuesday, Zelenskyy said that after speaking with European leaders, he was ready to present a peace proposal to the U.S.
“We are working very actively on all components of potential steps toward ending the war. The Ukrainian and European components are now more developed, and we are ready to present them to our partners in the U.S. Together with the American side, we expect to swiftly make the potential steps as doable as possible,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. “We are committed to a real peace and remain in constant contact with the United States.”
Zelenskyy said the end of the war depended on Russia’s willingness to “take effective steps to stop the bloodshed.”
The peace deal is not the only issue on Zelenskyy’s plate. He’s also facing turbulence on the home front after a recent political scandal. Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the president of Ukraine, resigned late last month after his home was raided by anti-corruption investigators. Upon Yermak’s resignation, Zelenskyy thanked him for “always presenting the Ukrainian position in the negotiation track exactly as it should be.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Zelenskyy’s office and the White House for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Alex Nitzberg and Fox News’ Simon Owen contributed to this report.