New Presidential Elections in Ukraine will Not Only Further Unite that Nation but Lead It to Recommit to Joining Europe, Kolesnikov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Dec. 13 – Vladimir Putin has insisted that Ukraine commit to holding new presidential elections as part of any peace deal, confident that he will be able to subvert them, oust Volodymyr Zelensky, and bring to power in Kyiv a new leader who will turn away from Europe and back to Russia.

            But according to Novaya Gazeta observer Andrey Kolesnikov, Putin is completely wrong; and any new elections whoever wins will result in a Ukraine more united and more committed to joining Europe than has ever been the case in the past  (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2025/12/13/posmotrite-na-nas).

            That outcome, he continues, reflects not only the sacrifices that the Ukrainian people have made to resist Russian aggression but also the idea that Zelensky himself articulated in 2019. He told the Ukrainians then that their vote had shown them and the world that “everything was and is possible.”

            That is one of the most important reasons behind Putin’s decision to launch his expanded invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He could not afford other countries, including his own, that have emerged from the disintegration of the USSR to reach the same conclusion. But nothing that he has done, Kolesnikov suggests, can shake the confidence of Ukrainians that that is so