Volodymyr Zelensky knows that elections “will mark the end of his career as president of Ukraine. Therefore, he will resist until the end,” Paolo Raffone, a strategic analyst and director of the CIPI Foundation in Brussels, told Sputnik.
Furthermore, elections in Ukraine are currently “not feasible, and the results would have no credibility,” he stated.
“The Ukrainian internal distribution of power” has “annihilated any internal dialogue, banned opposition parties, shut-down independent media outlets and persecuted journalists and dissidents,” the analyst noted.
“Significant sectors of Ukrainian Armed Forces have shown their discontent with Zelensky. However, the capillary infiltration of Western advisors and of ‘volunteers’ makes the coup option very slippery,” according to Raffone.
Ukraine’s president was advised by the West to reject any settlement with Russia, Raffone recalled, but pointed to remarks made by Russia’s foreign minister on Friday. Sergey Lavrov outlined a set of preconditions towards ending the conflict during his presser, “requiring to cancel the decree forbidding contacts with Russia; constitutional amendments to outlaw all anti-Russian policies and practices in Ukraine; constitutional amendments to renounce joining NATO.”
“As Lavrov stressed, the ball is in the US camp. When will the Biden administration accept reality?”
(Sputnik Int)
