US Wants Ukraine To Hold Elections Following A Ceasefire: Trump Envoy

Kyiv Has Recently Pushed Back On Polls, Saying They Could Invite Russian Influence Campaigns

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The US wants Ukraine to hold elections, potentially by the end of 2025, especially if Kyiv can agree a truce with Russia in the coming months, US President Donald Trump's top Ukraine official told Reuters.

General Keith Kellogg, Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, said in an interview that Ukrainian presidential and parliamentary elections, suspended during the war with Russia, "need to be done".

"Most democratic nations have elections in their time of war. I think it is important they do so," Gen Kellogg said.

"I think it is good for democracy. That's the beauty of a solid democracy, you have more than one person potentially running."

Mr Trump and Gen Kellogg have both said they are working on a plan to broker a deal in the first several months of the new administration to end the all-out war that erupted with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

They have offered few details about their strategy for ending the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War II, nor when they might unveil such a plan.

The Trump plan is still evolving and no policy decisions have been made, but Gen Kellogg and other White House officials have discussed in recent days pushing Ukraine to agree to elections as part of an initial truce with Russia, two people with knowledge of those conversations and a former US official briefed about the election proposal said.

Trump officials are also debating whether to push for an initial ceasefire before trying to broker a more permanent deal, the two people familiar with the Trump administration discussions said.

If presidential elections were to take place in Ukraine, the winner could be responsible for negotiating a longer-term pact with Moscow, the people said.