Putin would win the elections in Ukraine. One of the reasons why presidential elections did not take place in Ukraine a year ago.

Why did the elections not take place in Ukraine? From a legal perspective, it is not possible. As long as martial law is in effect in the country, elections may not be held. However, the situation is different from a political perspective. If martial law associated with a state of war in the country were abolished, elections could be organized.

Although Zelenskyi has been in office for a year longer than his electoral mandate due to the reasons mentioned above, the situation did not attract much attention. The change came with the entry of Donald Trump into the presidential office, who labelled the Ukrainian president as a "dictator without elections". Donald Trump himself faced impeachment (a term for a constitutional lawsuit against the president in the USA), due to denying the election result in 2021.

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Russians want elections in Ukraine to create division in society

The unusual situation in Ukraine regarding the non-holding of elections has another vociferous critic. It is the Russian regime, where there is a significant deficit in free access to elections, which is best explained in short by the impossibility of independent foreign observers being at their elections, as well as well-known videos documenting election fraud in Russia.

"The Russians, of course, demand and promote this. They want to stir up unrest, to create a split among the population during the election campaign. On the other hand, I can't figure out what the interest of the Americans could be,"

 explained the German commentator Winfried Schneider-Deters for DW, an expert on Ukraine why Russia takes this stance.

In Ukraine, this is not about suppressing the local political opposition. Even the former most significant opponent of Zelensky, Petro Poroshenko, who also held the office of Ukrainian President from 2014-2019, agrees with the approach, given the war situation in the country.

Putin would win the elections, says Zelensky's biggest competitor

"Elections in Ukraine are the killing of unity today. It's always a rivalry that contradicts unity. Every democracy knows this. Who wins these elections? Poroshenko? Zelensky? Neither of them. The only one person to win is - Putin. He already has a well-established disinformation campaign and the fifth column. He will take advantage of this moment, so we must not allow it. Our task now is to win the war. I dream of victory in the elections. In the elections, when I become a candidate for the European Parliament for Ukraine, when Ukraine becomes a member of the European Union,"

commented on the X network about Poroshenko's election dilemma.

A fundamental problem also remains in practical terms. Faced with an existential war, when a fifth of the country is occupied and millions of Ukrainians are evacuated to third countries, organizing elections is simply logistically unfeasible. The state of war is embedded in the Ukrainian constitution and another law stipulates that elections cannot be held if the country is in a state of war, which has been the case since the invasion in February 2022.

Zelensky has repeatedly stated that he will not participate in the next elections if Ukraine is admitted to the NATO alliance. However, the North Atlantic Alliance is going through turbulent development, as Trump's administration questions the current operation of the pact and an invitation for Ukrainians is currently not on the table.

According to current surveys, Volodymyr Zelensky would be the favorite among voters and his main rival is Valerij Zalužnyj, the former chief of the Ukrainian general staff.

Sources: author's text, AP, NBC, DW.com, Aktualne.cz, CT, X.com