Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is facing calls to hold elections as he attempts to dig himself into a war neither the United States nor Russia want to pursue. The leader of wartorn Ukraine has long been called out for refusing to hold elections, with critics citing other countries who had no issue sticking to democratic norms even during a war.
Now, Trump has labeled Zelensky a “dictator” while Musk is accusing Zelensky of murdering an American journalist. In short, relations between the U.S. and Ukraine just underwent a cataclysmic split, with Zelensky potentially facing calls for justice for his potential role in the murder of the American journalist Gonzalo Lira.
Social media is in an uproar, demanding elections be held. “Zelensky cannot claim to represent the will of the people of Ukraine unless he restores freedom of the press and stops canceling elections!” posted Elon Musk.
Zelensky has enacted martial law, attacked free speech, banned political parties, and even banned the Orthodox Church. In this last move, taken last summer, Ukraine had criminally charged some 100 clergymen as of August for spreading “Russian propaganda.”
And then, there was the American journalist who died in a Ukrainian prison.
“Ukraine imprisoned and killed Gonzalo Lira, an American Journalist who was critical of Zelensky. This was his last tweet,” an account posted under Musk’s comment regarding elections. To which, Musk then replied: “Zelensky killed an American journalist!”
“And Biden let him die in prison,” wrote the original poster.
Now, Zelensky not getting onboard the peace train is an open invitation to being hung out to dry, as seen in U.S. President Trump’s brutal takedown of him on Truth Social.
Calling Zelensky a “dictator” who imposed martial law and has a 4% approval rating, Trump has made it clear Zelensky will have no seat at the negotiating table, especially with his recent stance against the peace plans proposed.
“A dictator without elections, Zelensky better move fast, or he is not going to have a country left,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Clearly, D.C. now wants Ukraine to hold elections in the hope of getting rid of Zelensky, although Trump rightly assesses that Zelensky could in no way want this, as he “probably wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going.”
The defenders of Zelensky having refused to hold elections have ironically been many of the very same critics of Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán’s “illiberal democracy.” The very same people who, despite democratic elections being held, have found a way to believe they were anything but the will of Hungarians.
Zelensky, however, has ample reason to not hold elections.
Just 16 percent of Ukrainians said they would vote to re-elect Zelensky for a second term, according to polling from Social Monitoring Centre in Kyiv that had 1,200 Ukrainian respondents, which was published in November 2024. The poll represented the most comprehensive study of electoral preferences since the war broke out in 2022, In addition, 60 percent said they would prefer Zelensky not to even stand for re-election.
