Ukrainian election: who could replace Zelenskyy?

Four senior members of Donald Trump's administration have reportedly held secret meetings with Volodymyr Zelenskyy's political rivals as Washington puts pressure on Ukraine to hold elections.

Trump has called Zelenskyy a "dictator with elections". Now, his officials are said to have spoken to Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, as well as former president Petro Poroshenko, "just as Washington aligns with Moscow in seeking to lever the Ukrainian president out of his job", said Politico.

The discussions reportedly centred on whether Ukraine could hold "quick presidential elections", which have been delayed while the country remains under martial law. But there are fears that holding elections while Ukraine is under attack would be "chaotic and play into Russia's hands".

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Why have there not been elections in Ukraine?

Following the Russian invasion in 2022, Ukraine was placed under martial law, under which it cannot legally hold elections. That is why Zelenskyy, who won 73% of the vote in the last presidential election in 2019, has remained in office beyond his original May 2024 term limit.

The practicalities of holding an election would also pose a significant challenge, when millions of eligible voters are internally displaced within Ukraine, living abroad as refugees or serving on the frontline of the war.

Will Zelenskyy resign?

If he did, it would be "a great result" for Vladimir Putin, who has sought to depose him from the start, said the BBC. Zelenskyy himself has hinted that he would be willing to step down in exchange for Nato membership. But with Trump firmly opposed to Ukraine joining the Western military alliance, that course of action is off the table, for now at least.

As things stand, Zelenskyy is unlikely to resign in the absence of a peace deal or ceasefire, not least because Ukrainian officials estimate that "preparations to get elections to 'international standards' would take six months", during which time the country would be in "political limbo", said CNN. An "enduring ceasefire" must be secured in order to hold a safe and fair election, but there are other considerations too: for instance, "only three quarters of Ukraine's polling stations are operable at present".

Who could replace Zelenskyy?

Ruslan Stefanchuk
If Zelenskyy were to step down, parliamentary speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk would automatically become acting president under Ukraine's constitution. Stefanchuk, a Zelenskyy loyalist and member of the president's Servant of the People party, has strongly opposed Trump's call for wartime elections, stating that Ukraine needs "bullets, not ballots".

Valery Zaluzhny
Abroad, Zelenskyy is the face of Ukrainian resistance. At home it is "six-foot man-mountain" Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine's "Iron General" and former commander-in-chief of the armed forces, said The Telegraph. Following "long-simmering tensions" over war strategy, Zelenskyy removed him from that post in 2024, said Newsweek. He now serves as the country's ambassador to the UK, and caused a storm this week by accusing the US of "destroying" the current world order. Internal polling, reported by The Economist, suggests that Zelenskyy would lose a future election to Zaluzhny by 30% to 65%.

Petro Poroshenko
Ukraine’s former president, Poroshenko rose to power after the 2014 uprising that ousted Ukraine's pro-Kremlin government. Defeated by Zelenskyy in 2019, the two are "bitter rivals", said The Telegraph. Poroshenko has indicated that he plans to run for president again, but only once the war ends. "If you ask me if I plan to participate in the next election, yes," Poroshenko told Al Jazeera. "But first, for this election, we need to have a victory." In the meantime, he remains politically active, often visiting frontline troops.

Vitali Klitschko
The current mayor of Kyiv "is a political heavyweight in the literal sense", said The Telegraph. The ex-boxing world champion and brother of Wladimir is the son of a Soviet general, fluent in four languages and entered politics in order to "steer Ukraine to a pro-European path". He has occasionally clashed with Zelenskyy, accusing him of not being honest about the state of the war. While few expect Klitschko to run for the top job if there is an election imminently, many think he will one day.

Viktor Medvedchuk
Oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk was Kyiv's key link to Putin; so close was he to the Russian president that Putin became godfather to his youngest daughter. Arrested in 2021 for allegedly aiding pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, his TV stations were shut down as Russian propaganda outlets, a move that enraged Putin and may have helped trigger the 2022 invasion. Western intelligence believed that Medvedchuk was Russia's first choice for a puppet leader if the invasion succeeded in its goal of deposing Zelenskyy.