Several top Republican foreign-policy pols are sounding the alarm that Russia’s push for Ukraine to hold elections as part of a deal to end the war could lead to subterfuge from the Kremlin.
Russian and US officials met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday without a Ukrainian representative present to discuss an end to the war. Some reports have suggested that Russia’s call for an election in Ukraine as part of any deal was floated during those talks.
“Probably because they want to meddle in them,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) quipped Tuesday to “Fox & Friends” when asked why Russia wants new elections in Ukraine. “I think the reality on the ground in Ukraine is that Joe Biden left the world a terrible mess.
“We need to try to secure a durable truce,” said Cotton, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee. “We have to get creative about that.”
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, echoed Cotton’s concern about Russia seeking a new election in Ukraine so that it could attempt to influence the outcome.
The Kremlin has faced numerous accusations of trying to meddle in foreign elections, including in the US as well as in Romania last year, something that prompted its Constitutional Court’s controversial decision to annul the first round of its election.
“[Russian dictator Vladimir] Putin is now asking for a new election in Ukraine, conducted in a specific manner that he can influence, so that he can install his puppet and accomplish that which he couldn’t militarily,” Fitzpatrick wrote on X.
“Nice try, Vladimir. Try holding a free and fair election in your own country first without imprisoning your opponents. You have zero credibility and the United States and Europe will not cave to your ridiculous demands.”
Rep Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, suggested that Russia should be the one facing pressure to hold a legitimate election.
“While Russia is demanding elections in Ukraine hoping for a leadership change, we should remind ourselves that Putin has murdered or exiled all his political rivals,” he posted on X.
“Russia is the most anti-Democratic country in Europe. What is demanded of Putin?”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was elected in 2019. Under Ukraine’s Constitution, Kyiv does not hold presidential or parliamentary elections while the country is in a state of martial law, as it is now to deal with Russia’s bloody invasion.
The country’s next presidential election likely would’ve been held around March or April 2024 if not for the Russian invasion.
Zelensky has defended Ukraine’s decision not to have elections during the war — and said he fears that displacement of people from the war, including men who have been relegated to the battlefields, could make the logistics of conducting one difficult.
“I believe that elections will take place immediately after martial law,” Zelensky told podcaster Lex Fridman last month, according to a translation.
Numerous experts have raised concerns about the legitimacy of Russia’s own elections. During its most recent one last year, Putin “won” with 88.48% of the vote.
President Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, previously told Reuters that elections in Ukraine “need to be done,” noting that “most democratic nations have elections in their time of war.”
Trump, 78, himself has told reporters that “at some point you’re going to have to have elections” in Ukraine, without specifying a timeline or whether he wants it to be included in a deal to end the war.
Zelensky said he postponed his planned trip to Saudi Arabia until next month after it became clear that his team was “not invited to this Russian-American meeting in Saudi Arabia.
“It was a surprise for us. I think it was a surprise for many people,” he told reporters during a press conference in Turkey on Monday.
After a roughly 4 1/2 hour meeting, Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that the US and Russia agreed to three key principles.
They entail restoring embassy staffing and improving diplomatic relations between the countries, setting up a high-level team to commence negotiations to end the war and begin building a foundation for future geopolitical and economic cooperation.
Trump had phoned both Putin and Zelensky last week, talking to the US ally after his conversation with the Kremlin tyrant.
Last week, the president also dispatched Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to Ukraine to discuss a deal on getting US access to the country’s vast mineral resources as a means of paying for US military aid.
European leaders have also been scrambling to get a seat at the table as the Trump administration attempts to broker an end to Russia’s brutal assault on neighboring Ukraine.
