Trump Calls for Ukraine to Hold Elections to Potentially Replace Zelensky as He Takes Swipe at President’s Approval Rating

By New York Post. President Trump said Tuesday that Ukraine should hold elections to potentially replace Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine,” Trump said at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago after his US delegation finished talks with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia.

Trump claimed Zelensky, who was first elected in 2019, has a “4% approval rating” — despite polls showing the Ukrainian president hovering just above 50%.

Presidential elections were scheduled for April 2024, but none were held since Ukraine has been in a state of martial law since Russia launched the largest invasion since World War II in February 2022.

Zelensky in 2023 said an election would give way to “political divides” at a time when the country should be focused on defense. (Read more from “Trump Calls for Ukraine to Hold Elections to Potentially Replace Zelensky as He Takes Swipe at President’s Approval Rating” HERE)

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Ukraine Official Says Minerals Deal Agreed With US

By BBC News. Ukraine has agreed the terms of a major minerals deal with the US, a senior official in Kyiv has told the BBC.

“We have indeed agreed it with a number of good amendments and see it as a positive outcome,” the official said, without providing any further details.

Media reports say Washington has dropped initial demands for a right to $500bn (£395bn) in potential revenue from utilising the natural resources but has not given firm security guarantees to war-torn Ukraine – a key Ukrainian demand.

US President Donald Trump said he was expecting his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington to sign the deal this week, after the two leaders exchanged strong words about each other.

Without confirming that an agreement had been reached, Trump said on Tuesday that in return for the deal Ukraine would get “the right to fight on”.

“They’re very brave,” he told reporters, but “without the United States and its money and its military equipment, this war would have been over in a very short period of time”. (Read more from “Ukraine Official Says Minerals Deal Agreed With US” HERE)