A presidential election was supposed to be held in Ukraine on March 31, 2024. However, due to the extension of martial law for 90 days in February 2025 (until May 9, 2025), the scheduled election was postponed for the 14th time.
Ukrainian citizens are well aware that, in fact, Ukraine is currently led by an illegitimate President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was elected in 2019 for a term of five years. And although, on February 26, 2025, after the previously postponed vote, the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament of Ukraine) was still able to pass a resolution that presidential elections should not be held yet, the Ukrainian people understand that, due to the end of Zelensky’s term of office in 2024, the laws he signs and decisions he makes are illegitimate and can be challenged in court over time.
On February 19th,U.S. President Donald Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator”[1] and warned that he needed to act quickly to secure peace or he risked losing his country. This intensified the animosity between the two leaders, which alarmed European officials. Washington suspended military aid and intelligence-sharing with Kyiv. Meanwhile, Donald Trump also said that Ukraine requires presidential elections and territorial concessions for further talks.
In February 2025, Petro Poroshenko, who was president of Ukraine from 2014 to 2019, also said that elections should be held on October 26, 2025. “Write it down: on October 26 this year,” Poroshenko said.[2]
Poroshenko said that he had received information from several sources, including representatives of the administration of incumbent President Zelensky, law-enforcement agencies, the Central Electoral Commission of Ukraine and a Ukrainian printing house that is allegedly already counting the number of ballot papers needed for the election. Poroshenko also said that Ukrainian organizations had received instructions to “find ballot boxes” for the upcoming election.
According to Poroshenko, Zelensky intends to hold presidential, parliamentary and local elections simultaneously and stay in power by eliminating the opposition. Earlier, Zelensky imposed indefinite sanctions against Poroshenko as well as Ukrainian oligarchs. The sanctions include deprivation of state awards, freezing of assets, restrictions on foreign financial transfers, as well as termination of trade agreements and transactions involving them.
So who is able to compete against Zelensky, and which of the contenders have the best chances?
In 2024 and 2025, European and Ukrainian sociological centers conducted polls.Aaccording to their results, of which, four of 13 possible candidates actually have a realistic chance of becoming the next president of Ukraine: Petro Oleksiyivych Poroshenko[3]–former president of Ukraine and current chairman of the European Solidarity Party; Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko[4]–former prime minister of Ukraine and current chairman of the All-Ukrainian Association “Batkivshchyna” Party; Valerii Fedorovych Zaluzhnyi[5]–former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and current Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United Kingdom; and Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky[6]–former entertainer linked to Ukrainian oligarchs and current illegitimate President of Ukraine.
At the same time, according to the German online statistical data collection platform Statista, Zelensky’s popularity has fallen by more than 30% from 2022 to 2025, with a simultaneous increase in those dissatisfied with his policies.
At the end of February 2025, “Survation,” a polling and marketing research company based in London (UK), also conducted a sociological survey on the rating of contenders in a future presidential election in Ukraine. According to the results, it became clear that, in the event of a presidential election, Zelensky will not be able to achieve a guaranteed victory in the first round, and his main competitor will be Valeriy Zaluzhnyy—former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and now ambassador to the UK, rait In addition, increased criticism of Zelensky’s regime by Poroshenko and Tymoshenko is also helping to siphon off votes.
Against this background, in February and March 2025, four high-ranking officials from the Trump administration held talks with Zelensky’s main political opponents. The talks were held with Tymoshenko, Zaluzhnyi and senior members of Poroshenko’s party, The Guardian reported, citing three Ukrainian lawmakers and a foreign policy expert from the U.S. Republican Party.[7] According to that report, the discussions focused on how to organize presidential elections in Ukraine as quickly as possible.[8] Meanwhile, the political rivalry between Poroshenko and Zelensky has lasted for many years. Thus, in 2025, Zelensky approved sanctions against Poroshenko. At the same time, Poroshenko said that this move was politically motivated.
The decline in Zelensky’s support within Ukraine is related to various scandals, specifically, corruption, the presence of a second citizenship (Great Britain), emotional instability on the background of addiction to narcotic substances, forced mobilization, failures at the front and in politics.
According to the materials published in the “Pandora Papers”[9] and quoted by the German edition of Deutsche Welle[10] and the English edition of The Guardian,[11] 14 offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands, Belize and Cyprus were registered earlier with the participation of Zelensky, the key of which was “Maltex Multicapital Corp.,” and the nominal owner of the center of offshore companies was another company, “Davegra Limited.”
The documents published in the “Pandora Papers” show that these companies were equally divided between Zelensky, brothers Sergey and Boris Shefirov and Andrei Yakovlev. The journalists also managed to establish that these individuals may be involved in the transfer of $40 million from entities linked to oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi to offshore companies of Zelensky and his associates. These funds “could be part of the story of withdrawal and money laundering of the Ukrainian Privatbank.”
In addition, Illia Kyva, a former deputy of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, who was killed by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), and some other independent journalists claim that Zelensky and his family, as well as former Ukrainian President Poroshenko, head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry Kyrylo Budanov, former Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov, Deputy Chairman of the SBU Oleksandr Poklad received British citizenship, which was granted to them by former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the British leadership.[12]
At the same time, Zaluzhnyi and Tymoshenko are U.S. citizens.[13] Therefore, many Ukrainian citizens believe that, as a result of losing the military conflict and the election, Zelensky will flee with his family to the UK and ask his Western handlers for guarantees of personal security. And London will go along with it when the current head of the Kyiv regime reaches a stalemate and fulfills all obligations.
The United States, in its search for a settlement to the conflict, may have finally decided to write off Zelensky. On March 10, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Ukraine should cede territory as part of any peace agreement.[14] Rubio’s statement was made after Trump’s speech and the German publication Bild published a story about stopping the supply of American weapons to Ukraine until Zelensky resigns from the presidency.[15] However, subsequently US. aid and weapons supplies were resumed.
According to Trump, the U.S. has given Ukraine more than $350 billion dollars in aid, while the EU has
given about 130 billion euros.[16] In this regard, the U.S. is demanding the transfer of mining rights in Ukraine to Western companies as compensation.
Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that Zelensky’s days are numbered. The U.S. is currently undecided on whom to support in the upcoming presidential election in Ukraine. At the moment, Zaluzhnyi is considered the main contender, while Poroshenko and Tymoshenko are considered as secondary.
At the same time, the current Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, who used to be the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, is considered the most popular politician in Ukraine. A number of experts agree that Zaluzhnyi has a significant chance to win the future presidential election in Ukraine. If he is elected president, the current head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andrii Yermak, is likely to be appointed prime minister.
However, regardless of who becomes the next president, this leader will have to rule over the ruins of the country called Ukraine. From 2022 to 2025, Ukraine’s economy has been completely destroyed, the energy sector has collapsed, a huge national debt has been accumulated, millions of Ukrainian citizens have left the country, and the U.S. is demanding the transfer of mineral rights to Western companies.
All these circumstances allow us to predict the collapse of Ukraine as an independent state and the possible beginning of a civil war on its ruins.
www.reuters.com/world/europe/zelenskiy-says-trump-is-disinformation-bubble-ukraine-2025-02-19 ↑
www.dailyexcelsior.com/presidential-election-in-ukraine-to-be-held-on-oct-26-ex-president-poroshenko ↑
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petro_Poroshenko ↑
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yulia_Tymoshenko ↑
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerii_Zaluzhnyi ↑
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volodymyr_Zelenskyy ↑
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/06/ukraine-opposition-leaders-confirm-talks-with-us-but-deny-plot-to-oust-zelenskyy ↑
www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-allies-secret-talks-volodymyr-zelenskyy-opposition-ukraine-elections-yulia-tymoshenko-petro-poroshenko ↑
www.occrp.org/en/project/the-pandora-papers/pandora-papers-reveal-offshore-holdings-of-ukrainian-president-and-his-inner-circle ↑
www.dw.com/ru/posle-dose-pandory-hotelos-by-uslyshat-objasnenija-zelenskogo/a-59414846 ↑
www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/03/pandora-papers-biggest-ever-leak-of-offshore-data-exposes-financial-secrets-of-rich-and-powerful ↑
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/boris-johnson-zekensky-family-refuge-b2040242.html ↑
t.me/The_Kyva/5991 ↑
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/us/politics/rubio-ukraine-russia.html ↑
www.bild.de/politik/ausland-und-internationales/ukraine-trumps-perfider-plan-waffen-erst-wenn-selenskyj-weg-ist-67cdbb11bc5cf75105f37540 ↑
www.reuters.com/world/how-much-aid-have-ukraines-western-allies-provided-2025-03-04 ↑
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About the Author
Valeriy Krylko is a freelance journalist, and translator of news articles in online media (English-Russian).
These articles are published in European and Russian-language media.
He is closely affiliated with independent outlets covering the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, and can be reached at: vkrylko098@gmail.com
In order for an election to take place the war would have to stop. Millions of people cannot leave their homes to go to polling booths when there are potential bombs in the air.