Mr. Zelensky fears losing the election after the fighting ends.
(Baonghean.vn) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is concerned that he will not win the presidential election after the military campaign ends, the Guardian reported.
According to the Guardian, President Zelensky fears repeating the fate of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965), whose party lost the 1945 parliamentary election, despite the victory of the anti-Hitler coalition in World War II.
The British media previously compared the Ukrainian President to Churchill. According to the Guardian, after the fighting ended, the opposition in Ukraine wanted to investigate the level of response that President Zelensky had prepared the country to face a special military operation by Russia.
Ukraine is scheduled to hold its next presidential election in the spring of 2024. But the country has imposed martial law, which under Ukrainian law makes holding a vote impossible. Mr Zelensky has said the presidential election cannot be held until the fighting ends.
In a move to show support for Ukraine, the Pentagon confirmed on November 20 that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had made a surprise visit to Kiev. Secretary Austin held meetings with Ukrainian leaders to reassure them of Washington's commitment to providing military assistance to Ukraine.
However, no specific new aid package was announced. “I am here today to deliver an important message – the United States will continue to stand with Ukraine,” Mr. Austin wrote in a post on social network X (formerly Twitter), sharing a photo of himself being greeted by Ukrainian officials at a train station in Kiev.
Secretary Austin later announced that he had spoken with President Zelensky and once again promised that “the United States will remain steadfast in its support for Ukraine.” He stressed that Washington and its allies would meet “urgent battlefield needs as well as the long-term defense requirements” of Ukrainian forces.
Neither Mr. Austin nor the Pentagon mentioned any specific new commitments regarding military assistance to Kiev. The Defense Department said only that the discussions in Kiev focused on ensuring that the Ukrainian military has the “warfighting capabilities it needs” for the coming winter and beyond.
Chairman of the Russian State Duma (Lower House) Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky described Minister Austin’s visit to Kiev as a “moral support mission”. The main goal of the visit is to prevent the collapse of the “anti-Russian project” and reassure the “puppet government” in Ukraine about US support./.
