Ukraine has begun planning presidential elections alongside a referendum on any peace deal with Russia, after the Trump administration pressed Kyiv to hold both votes by May 15th or risk losing proposed US security guarantees.
The move, according to Ukrainian and western officials and others familiar with the matter, comes amid intense pressure on Kyiv by the White House to wrap up peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in the spring.
The plan aligns with a US push, outlined by Volodymyr Zelenskiy to reporters last Friday, to have all documents signed to bring Europe’s largest conflict since the second world war to an end by June.
“They say that they want to do everything by June ... so that the war ends,” Ukraine’s president told reporters, citing the White House’s desire to shift its focus to the US midterm elections in November. “And they want a clear schedule.”
READ MORE
Holding an election would mark a dramatic political pivot for a president who has repeatedly argued that such votes are impossible while the country remains under martial law, millions of Ukrainians are displaced and about 20 per cent of the country is under Russian occupation.
According to Ukrainian and European officials involved in the planning as well as others briefed on the matter, Zelenskiy intends to announce the plan for presidential elections and a referendum on February 24th, the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“The Ukrainians have this hard idea that it all needs to be bundled with Zelenskiy’s re-election,” said one western official familiar with the matter.
Zelenskiy’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
[ Fast-tracking Ukraine: why Europe is wary of bending rules for EU entryOpens in new window ]
A person close to Zelenskiy pointed to the president’s statements on Wednesday following Russia’s latest attacks on Ukraine: “Security issues are the key priority right now, and everything else must be addressed only in conjunction with truly guaranteed security.”
The US embassy in Kyiv declined to comment.
Ukrainian and western officials stressed that both the timetable and the US ultimatum were unlikely to hold, as they hinged on several factors, including that progress could be made towards a peace deal with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
But the plan underscores Zelenskiy’s desire to maximise his re-election prospects while reassuring US president Donald Trump that Kyiv is not slow-walking a peace deal if one can be reached.
Public support for Zelenskiy, while still substantial, has declined from the near-unanimous levels four years ago, national polling shows, amid fatigue with the war and corruption scandals within the president’s inner circle.
People close to Zelenskiy said he and his team had signalled to the Trump administration that they were open to the extraordinarily swift timeline, despite the logistical hurdles of holding an election at short notice in wartime.
Zelenskiy has said that Ukraine and the US have reached an agreement on security guarantees and is ready to sign them with Trump.
But the US president has indicated to Kyiv that American security guarantees are contingent on agreeing the broader peace deal that would probably involve ceding the Donbas region to Russia, and which Washington wants done before the May 15 deadline.
Zelenskiy has so far resisted calls for conceding territory, saying last week that Ukraine will “stand where we stand”.
The officials cautioned that the Trump administration has previously set deadlines that have passed, but Washington is giving Kyiv very little room for manoeuvre as the US midterm elections loom.
They said the plan could also be delayed because of how far apart Kyiv and Moscow remain on the key issue of territory, including control over the Donbas region and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The timeline may also be disrupted if Russia escalates its attacks on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure and ground offensive in the southeast, where its forces are grinding forward but taking enormous casualties, they said. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026
[ ‘Only Trump can stop the war’, says Ukrainian foreign ministerOpens in new window ]
