Roman Sheremeta

Dec 19, 2025

Russian officials are saying that Putin will not sign any agreement with President Zelenskyy because he is supposedly “illegitimate.”

This didn’t come out of nowhere. It is the predictable outcome of months of appeasement — and I warned about this eight months ago.

Back in February, reports emerged (including on Fox News) about a proposed three-step “peace plan”:

1. ceasefire,
2. elections in Ukraine,
3. a final agreement.

From the very beginning, russia framed elections in Ukraine as a precondition for peace. That alone should have raised alarm bells.

Why would the Kremlin push so hard for Ukrainian elections?

It was never because russia expected to win them. There is zero chance Ukrainians would elect a pro-Kremlin president. The most likely outcomes would have been Zelenskyy or Zaluzhnyi — neither more “flexible,” neither acceptable to Moscow.

The elections demand was always a Trojan Horse. Its purpose was twofold.

First, to buy time. Elections during wartime are legally, logistically, and politically complex. Even initiating the process would slow everything down.

Second — and more importantly — to create a built-in exit excuse. No matter how elections are conducted, russia could later declare them illegitimate and walk away from negotiations whenever it suited them.

Ukrainian law explicitly bans elections under martial law. Lifting martial law without real security guarantees would be suicidal. Amending the law would take time and consensus. Either path creates vulnerability.

And even if elections were forced through quickly, the problems would be obvious and unavoidable:

• Millions of Ukrainians abroad would struggle to vote.
• Soldiers at the front would face severe obstacles to participation.
• Key political figures could be excluded due to sanctions or compressed timelines.
• Any digital voting solution would immediately be attacked as “unverifiable.”
• Organizational flaws would be inevitable under wartime conditions.

Within weeks, both Moscow and certain voices in Washington would point to those flaws and declare the same verdict “Zelenskyy is illegitimate. The elections were flawed. Ukraine is a dictatorship.”

And this time, unlike now, that accusation would partially stick.

Today, Zelenskyy’s legitimacy is ironclad:

• He was elected in free, democratic elections.
• The constitution clearly prohibits elections during war.
• Ukrainian society overwhelmingly understands and accepts this.

Forcing elections would mean voluntarily stepping into a legitimacy trap — one designed in Moscow, and echoed by the US administration.

Zelenskyy is not afraid of elections. But that personal courage is exactly what manipulators exploit — pushing him toward a politically suicidal move under the guise of “democracy.”

Elections under fire are not democracy. They are a weapon — and right now, they are aimed directly at Ukraine’s legitimacy.

Comment from :

Steve Easterwood

Since Ukraine is a sovereign nation, no one can force them to do anything that is unconstitutional. Anything else is blackmail.

Myron Dmytrovych

What about elections in Russia?

Reply from Richard Ballard :

Last time Autumn 1917….no need for a new election yet!

Ales Krisnar

Ok, elections, but RU first, under strict EU and US controll. UA next.

Tom Puzzo

Ukraine doesn’t need an election, Russia does.

Sharon Gauthier

Alina Zvolankova

What I find absurd about this is that despite all the absurdity of the demand for presidential elections in Ukraine, it is still more realistic than free presidential elections in Russia.

RJ Oakley

There were also those of us that predicted the US would abandon their allies just like the south Vietnamese, the Iraqi’s the Afghans and even the Kurds, and we knew the US would abandon Ukraine eventually and start demanding Ukraine give up land to Russia in the hopes of a peace deal just so Trump can make the cover of Time magazine and get the Nobel peace prize, but we knew what he would do. I was posting about this years ago.

Star comment :

Daniel Mazur

Yes, people at large forget that ‘elections’ are not a guarantee of democracy, it is ‘free and democratic elections’. And the latter simply cannot be guaranteed at war time. Secondly, no elections will be legitimate that do not include citizens of all land included in its legitimate borders. I know there is a precedent of elections without Crimea, but that is precisely the second biggest trap: If people of Donetsk, Luhansk etc are not allowed to vote and the elections are still called legitimate, anyone can argue that through this UA already admits that those territories are not theirs. Don’t go that way, please.

Frank Schrodl

First there should be fair and verifiable elections in Russia before they could criticize other countries leaders as being illegitimate.

George Zahorodnyi

Frank Mansueto

Andy Cottrel

Let’s face it. pUtiN really doesn’t want the Nobel Peace Prize.

Andrii Fuchenko

A just peace treaty.

1) russia leaves all occupied territories.
2) russia completely disarms and gets rid of nuclear weapons.
3) russia pays compensation for all material damage and for every person killed.
4) All Ukrainian prisoners of war return home.
5) russia returns all occupied territories to neighboring countries.
6) russia is excluded from all international contacts for 10 years.
7) russian representatives will be suspended from international sports for 10 years.

……………………

Why do so many Russians still worship Stalin, a man who killed millions of them?

Because this is not about history. It is about power. Stalin is not remembered as a mass murderer. He is packaged as the man who “won the war”. The builder of a superpower. The symbol of order through fear. Crimes are minimized. Responsibility is blurred. Memory is managed.

In Russian political culture, cruelty equals strength. Fear means effectiveness. Mercy means weakness.

When terror is normalized, mass death becomes proof of leadership. There was never accountability. No trials. No national reckoning. No moral closure. When trauma is not processed, societies often identify with the abuser. Admiring power feels safer than admitting victimhood.

Empire always comes before people. Territory before lives. Greatness before wellbeing. Stalin expanded the empire. For many, that outweighs millions of deaths. And Stalin is not unique.

They still glorify Lenin. Architect of mass terror. Rebranded as a philosopher.

They rehabilitate Ivan the Terrible. Mass killings reframed as “state building”.

They worship institutions of repression. NKVD. KGB. FSB.

They elevate modern strongmen and war criminals as patriots. The pattern is consistent. Russia does not worship individuals. It worships force.

Until human life matters more than imperial myth, Stalin will remain not a warning. But a role model. And Putin too.

Source: Volodymyr Kukharenko