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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would most likely win an election in the country after the war, the governor of Ukraine's southern Mykolaiv region has said, as fresh U.S.-led talks on a ceasefire kicked off on Wednesday and Russia renewed strikes Ukrainian cities.
Zelensky is the "best candidate for the future president," Vitaliy Kim, a long-term ally of the president, told Newsweek on Tuesday, insisting a return to peacetime would allow the Ukrainian leader, who gained office in 2019, to focus on reforms he had planned before Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
Kim's comments came just hours after Russia hit Ukraine's largest cities, including Kyiv and Kharkiv, with a bombardment of drone and missile strikes—the year's largest attack so far.
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The attacks targeted the country's power facilities, leaving tens of thousands without electricity and heating on Tuesday and Wednesday amid freezing -25C (-13F) temperatures. Three people were also killed in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia during persistent attacks across both days, the regional governor said.
The strikes on civilian areas came immediately after what appeared to be a pause in Russian attacks brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump last week. Last Thursday, Trump said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed "not to fire into Kyiv and various towns for a week."
The Kremlin said Trump had "made a personal request to Putin" to not strike the Ukrainian capital until February 1, a shorter timeline, but did not elaborate further. Moscow resumed strikes on February 2.
Trump, when probed on whether he was disappointed by Russia restarting attacks, said Putin had "kept his word."
Kim declined to comment on what the latest round of trilateral peace talks could achieve, but said Ukraine was exhausted by nearly four years of grueling war against Moscow. The country is "looking forward" to a peace deal, Kim said.
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Ukraine has ruled out the prospect of elections taking place during the war, while under the country is still under martial law.
But as Trump has called for elections in Ukraine, and at times criticized Zelensky's standing in office, including calling him a "dictator," the Ukrainian leader has said his government could set up ballots if the U.S. and other backers could ensure voters' safety.
Zelensky's elected time in office expired last year. Russia has painted Zelensky as illegitimate, while Trump has repeatedly accused the Ukrainian leader of "using war" to avoid elections. Zelensky has remained popular, although corruption scandals touching his inner circle have fueled discontent with the government and pulled down his approval rating, according to recent polls.
Election Needed, Governor Says
Oleh Didenko, the head of Ukraine's Central Election Commission, told Reuters last month that setting up elections would be very complicated and safe conditions should be guaranteed.
But: "From the democratic point of view, we need it—this election," Kim said.
Kim has served as governor of Mykolaiv, the embattled southern region on the Black Sea throughout the war. He was appointed by Zelensky in late 2020, long before Russian tanks crossed the border in February 2022 and missiles rained down across the country.
Russia set its sights on the city of Mykolaiv early on, but failed to take the former shipbuilding hub and Ukrainian forces peeled back Russian control of chunks of the region in the first months of the war.
But Mykolaiv has never been far from the fighting, and Moscow still controls the strategic Kinburn Spit in the region.
Kim said Ukrainian authorities were "ready" to hold elections, but they should only take place several months after the fighting stops.
"We need to guarantee the right to vote to every citizen of Ukraine," he added. Some of those who would be eligible are on the front lines or have remained abroad, he said.
Zelensky is the "best" option post-war "for now," Kim said. The president had a "big plan [for] Ukraine, about reforms, about how we will go to the European Union, how we will change our situation with corruption."
Kim played down concerns in Europe and Ukraine that the U.S.' haste to push through a deal could come at Ukraine's expense.
When asked if the White House was on Kyiv's side, he said: "I think that they are on the side of peace. They need to have a peace deal…But I think that they prefer Ukraine to Russia because Russia is [the] aggressor and Ukraine is defending itself."
He also batted away suggestions that the White House publicly displaying a recent photo of Trump with Putin did not bode well for Ukraine's negotiating position. The framed shot, hanging on a wall near the West Wing, shows the two leaders posing during their summit in Alaska last summer.
"From my point of view, [Trump's] goal is to create peace because he promised this—so, it means nothing, this picture," Kim said.
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