'Russia might let us hold them': Ukrainian MP warns of election trap

Roman Kostenko, Ukrainian lawmaker and colonel, stated this on Espreso TV.

"Here, you first need to understand, you know, when we talk about the possibility of elections during a truce, we must immediately understand whether we see the conditions for a truce at all. I don't see any of this. At any moment, for example, Russia can change its rhetoric, and we understand that a truce with the Russian Federation is unstable and will not be stable for a long time, and they cannot provide any security guarantees, other than the same kind of real ones we agreed to in the Budapest Memorandum, that Russia will not attack again," he said.

Kostenko emphasizes that elections need to be held, but again - we do not see a truce, or that it will happen in the near future.

"Russia is generally trying to get out of this; it has secured the support of China, North Korea, and other countries are helping it. They don't want to do this. If Russia wants to give us the opportunity to hold elections - we must be very careful about this," the MP noted.

He explained that holding elections is a whole process.

"It's not just that we stopped the war and started campaigning, started building polling stations, forming election commissions, and going to vote. Processes will be triggered; it will be necessary to cancel martial law. What kind of truce will it be? Russia will continue to stand on the contact line, and we will end martial law, which means we will stop mobilization. We don't know what will happen when, for example, martial law ends. All restrictions on exit and entry will be completely lifted. We don't know what will happen," Kostenko stated.

The MP suggested that perhaps this is what the Russian Federation will need to do in order to destroy our country altogether.

"They understand that the country is already exhausted, many people want to leave, many are tired of living under constant attacks, constant war, some are worried about being mobilized, and such conditions can be created. Believe me, if I were in their place, you look for such weak spots and you have to play on them. Many people are tired, and for them, the issue of just being in normal conditions is more important than global issues like the preservation of the country for someone else. Therefore, I say again, many are tired," said the SBU colonel.

He stressed that the Russians can play on this, and we need to be very, very careful before we make any decisions.

"Is it necessary to hold them? Yes, it is. Can the Russian Federation be trusted? No, it cannot be trusted. Do we need to provide everyone with the conditions to hold elections and vote? Of course, we do. We need to think about the soldiers; we have an army of a million," the MP noted.

In his opinion, the Defense Forces are the ones who should, first and foremost, make their choice.

"We can't just say: 'You fight there, secure the front line for us, you won't be able to vote, and those in the rear or those abroad will vote.' No, it is precisely those who are fighting with weapons in hand and defending this country and everyone else who should vote first. And we certainly should not trade one for the other. Therefore, this is a very difficult story, and to simply say - tomorrow there will be a truce and we will hold elections - is unrealistic. Both according to our Constitution and according to the conditions that I see, and according to what may happen after some kind of truce," Kostenko added.

He said that Russia is not going anywhere.

"And our period will not be post-war, but interwar, because we know that Russia does not change its plans to return Ukraine to its sphere of influence. Perhaps they will hope that somehow during these processes, Ukraine will either enter a state of some internal conflict, or some pro-Russian forces will gain the upper hand. We all need to talk about this, we need to understand and know that these are difficult processes that Ukraine will definitely have to go through, but our task, the task of the whole country, is to make sure they go correctly and that Russia does not take advantage of it," the SBU colonel concluded.

• On September 25, in an interview with Axios, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that he does not plan to lead the country in peacetime and intends to ask parliament to organize elections if a truce is reached.