Politico: Trump team holds secret talks with Zelenskyy’s political opponents
Pravda Ukraine
Politico has reported that four high-ranking associates of US President Donald Trump have held secret talks with Yuliia Tymoshenko, leader of Ukraine’s Batkivshchyna party, and members of European Solidarity, the party of former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko.
Source: Politico, citing three Ukrainian MPs and a Republican foreign policy expert
Quote: “Four senior members of Donald Trump’s entourage have held secret discussions with some of Kyiv’s top political opponents to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just as Washington aligns with Moscow in seeking to lever the Ukrainian president out of his job.”
Details: According to Politico, the discussion focused on whether Ukraine could hold early presidential elections. “The Trump aides are confident that Zelenskyy would lose any vote due to war fatigue and public frustration over rampant corruption,” Politico writes.
The news outlet noted that although Zelenskyy’s approval rating had been declining for years, it rose following the spat between him and Trump in the Oval Office on 28 February. Furthermore, the latest poll shows that Zelenskyy is still well ahead in the presidential race.
“The official line from the US administration is that Trump is not interfering in Ukraine’s domestic politics. This week, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick denied his boss was ‘weighing into Ukrainian politics’, adding all that Trump wants is a partner for peace. But the behaviour of Trump and his officials suggests quite the opposite. Trump has accused Zelenskyy of being a ‘dictator without elections’, while Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has falsely accused Kyiv of cancelling the election,” Politico says.
It was also reported that although the Trump camp may hope that an election will sink Zelenskyy, he is still much more popular than Tymoshenko and Poroshenko.
In a poll conducted by the British polling company Survation this week after the White House spat, 44% said they would support Zelenskyy in a presidential election.
His closest rival, more than 20% behind him, is Valerii Zaluzhnyi, a former commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukraine’s current ambassador to the UK. Only 10% supported Poroshenko, and Tymoshenko received only 5.7% support.
“The key to all of the plans under discussion via back channels is to hold presidential elections after a temporary ceasefire is agreed, but before full-scale peace negotiations get underway in earnest. The idea of an early presidential election is also being pushed by the Kremlin, which has wanted to be rid of Zelenskyy for years,” Politico noted.
Both Tymoshenko and Poroshenko have publicly opposed holding elections before the end of combat actions, as has Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
However, a leading Republican foreign policy expert, who asked not to be named so that he could speak freely, told Politico: “Poroshenko’s people and Yuliia, they’re all talking to Trump World, positioning themselves as people who would be easier to work with. And people who would consent to many of the things that Zelenskyy is not agreeing to.”
Asked whether Tymoshenko has had talks with representatives of the US administration or Trump’s inner circle about a presidential election or peace talks, her spokeswoman Nataliia Lysova thanked Politico for its interest. “We won’t comment on that yet,” she said.
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