Zelensky Won’t Let Eastern Ukrainians Vote If He Holds an Election Some Day

Ukrainian President Zelensky said that when they hold a presidential election, if they ever hold an election, he will not allow the occupied territories of eastern Ukraine to vote.

That sounds a little undemocratic for someone who claims to be saving democracy for the world.

It appears as if he’s not going to let people who disagree with him vote, which means roughly 20% of Ukraine will be disenfranchised.

There’s probably not much of a problem here because he doesn’t plan to hold elections anyway.

He reasons that Russia occupies those territories, so it would be like giving Putin a vote.

His reasons for not holding an election continue to be that he wants the security of being in NATO, though he doesn’t use the word NATO. And he claims he needs legislation. In the past, he has said he must have the people who fled the country vote, and the US and Europe would have to take care of that.

Whenever he gets to a peace deal, he says the Ukrainian constitution doesn’t allow him to cede any land. Therefore, there never will be a peace deal.

Не Путіну вирішувати, коли і в якому форматі будуть проходити вибори в Україні, бо це вибори виключно громадян України. Тому він точно не буде впливати ні на що, і на результат тим більше.

Голосують громадяни України, які знаходяться в Україні, на контрольованих українських…

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 20, 2025