Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday, October 11, in an interview with ABC News that Ukraine will hold elections if Russia agrees to a 60-day total ceasefire. This is a response to Donald Trump’s remarks that “it’s time for Ukraine to have a new president”.
The Ukrainian president appeared on the “This Week” programme on ABC News. As ABC News reports, the interview was a reaction to criticism from the US president. Zelensky said that the choice of leader belongs to Ukrainian society, adding: “with all due respect to President Trump”.
The condition: 60 days of total ceasefire
According to Kyiv Post, Zelensky told Trump’s team that if Washington really wants elections in Ukraine, it should ask Putin for two months. A quote from the interview, cited by Reuters: “Please tell Putin, give us two months, 60 days of total ceasefire, and we will organize elections” (in translation: “Please tell Putin: give us two months, 60 days of total ceasefire, and we will organize elections”). Zelensky indicated that a safe vote requires a binding halt to Russian shelling (Kyiv Post).
The idea of a 60-day ceasefire is not new. In December 2025, Axios reported that Zelensky linked such a ceasefire to a referendum on the peace plan. He then described it as the minimum needed to prepare a vote.
Background: refineries and Trump's words
On Saturday, Trump criticised Zelensky for attacks on Russian refineries. This came a day after the US temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian fuel. As Reuters reports, the US president told reporters at the White House: “I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president”. According to ABC News, Trump also claimed that Zelensky “chooses not to” end the war.
Zelensky defended the strikes on refineries as a response to Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. He proposed an exchange: Ukraine will stop attacking Russian refineries if Russia stops hitting its energy sector. He asked Trump to send that signal to Moscow. He added that it is easy to blame Ukraine for rising fuel prices, although, as he put it, everyone understands that prices are rising because of the war in the Middle East (Reuters).
Zelensky also noted that Putin would also like a change of power in Kyiv.
What it means
For now, this is a conditional declaration. At the time of publication, we had not seen the Kremlin’s reaction to the proposal for a 60-day ceasefire. In the past, Russia rejected a 30-day ceasefire, and in May 2025 Dmitry Peskov told ABC News that it would be in Kyiv’s favour (via Kyiv Independent). So a ceasefire and elections in Ukraine are not on the horizon in the near term. For readers in Poland, what matters is that Kyiv’s dispute with Washington also concerns fuel prices and sanctions on Russian oil.
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