Should Ukraine hold a general election next year?

In the months before Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Volodymyr Zelensky was fighting for his political life. The former comedian was elected in 2019 on a pledge to end the war in Donbas by an electorate exasperated with its political class. Zelensky initially set out to negotiate with Vladimir Putin – but achieved nothing. He appeared naive and out of his depth.

However, Zelensky’s transformation into a wartime leader captured the world’s imagination and rallied his allies. Yet some of those allies are beginning to ask whether, if this war is really about the free world versus autocracy, as Zelensky claims, Ukraine should hold a general election next year.

The Republican senator and staunch Ukraine supporter Lindsey Graham recently told Zelensky during a meeting that he wants to ‘see this country [Ukraine] have a free and fair election even while it is under assault’. Zelensky said that if the £110 million election cost is covered, he could make it happen.

Ukrainians, however, are generally wary of foreign demands for an election. To many, it appears as if the West wants to swap Zelensky for a leader who would be more likely to compromise with Moscow. But the chances of such a leader being elected are negligible. I spent the summer in Ukraine talking to politicians, soldiers, aid workers and ordinary citizens. All of them detest this war, yet not once did I hear anyone put the case for making concessions to Russia. Opinion polls confirm this. Any president who tries to sell out will be thrown out, as the 2014 Maidan revolution demonstrated.

An election would make very little difference.