The first day of the total invasion of Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and his main political opponent at home shake hands, putting aside their fierce rivalry to focus on the enemy. The generally noisy policy of the country has become largely dormant during the three years that followed.
Now, like the peace talks led by the Trump administration have sparked prospects for ceasefire and possible elections, political jockeying has returned.
Ukrainian politicians maneuver at home and stretch behind the scenes of the Trump administration, which has not made any secrets His disdain for Mr. ZelenskyDespite its lionization on the world scene to resist Russia.
Petro O. Poroshenko, a former Ukrainian president and the leader of a rival party, says that the best way to smooth out peace talks is to bring personalities opposition to the government.
Mr. Poroshenko had previously launched the idea of revising Ukraine’s policy to form a national unity government, which could benefit his party. He relaunched the proposal after Controversial oval office meeting with President Trump In February and a call from a republican senator to retire.
Mr. Zelensky has shown no interest in forming a coalition of ministers which would include opposition figures. Instead, his government has hooked pressure on adversaries by law enforcement agencies and security.
The mayor of kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said that Mr. Zelensky had abused martial law powers to cancel the municipal council. In January, the National Security Council of Ukraine froze Mr. Poroshenko’s bank accounts while not placing any specific accusation.
“We have no other option other than a coalition of national unity, a government of national unity,” said Poroshenko in an interview on Wednesday. “We should have unity in parliament and demonstrate unity in the country. And the results of this decision should be a war stopping. ”
Mr. Zelensky’s five -year term, who was to expire last year, was extended under martial law. The elections are legally prohibited under martial law and impassable as long as Ukraine remains at war.
Almost a month ago, Ukraine offered an unconditional one month ceasefire that Russia has not accepted. A Trump administration, Steve Witkoff, went to Russia on FridayPerhaps in order to rekindle negotiations.
Mr. Poroshenko said the talks could get a boost if Mr. Zelensky authorized political opponents to enter the government, since Mr. Trump A called Mr. Zelensky a “dictator without elections”. This echoes the criticism of the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, who said he would not sign a peace regulation with Mr. Zelensky.
Mr. Poroshenko said he disagreed with Mr. Zelensky’s assessment of Mr. Trump as a dictator.
But with the prospect of a ceasefire and elections, Mr. Poroshenko took more criticizing the president openly. The sanctions that the National Security Council brought to Mr. Poroshenko froze his bank accounts and could exclude him from future elections.
Mr. Poroshenko described the sanctions against him as “disastrous, unconstitutional and extrajudicial”. If he was arrested, he said, he would then say that Ukraine is on the path of dictatorship.
The intense rivalry between the two Ukrainian leaders dates back years. Mr. Poroshenko led Ukraine from 2014 to 2014. After Mr. Zelensky The defeated vaincuroiseThe new government then interviewed Mr. Poroshenko as a witness in a burst of criminal cases that Mr. Poroshenko described as political motivation.
Even when tanks were massaged on the border before Russia went through in 2022, the intestine struggles continued in Ukraine: the prosecutors asked for an arrest warrant against Mr. Poroshenko, although he was refused by a judge.
Mr. Poroshenko has a support base in Ukrainian nationalist policy, in particular in the West and Center of Ukraine, while Mr. Zelensky, in the 2019 race, obtained wide support across the country, including Russian speakers in the center and eastern Ukraine.
The two men met on the morning of February 24, 2022, when Russia began its assault, to put aside their rivalry. Mr. Zelensky asked what he could do for Mr. Poroshenko. The former president said that he had asked for 5,000 Kalashnikovs to arm his supporters against the Russians and that Mr. Zelensky had provided firearms.
Mr. Poroshenko, 59, is unlikely to win a presidential election, according to polls. He has always been in third place or less, behind Mr. Zelensky and a former army commander, General Valery Zaluzhny.
Political analysts claim that Mr. Poroshenko could fall to an electoral alliance with General Zaluzhny, who is ambassador in Great Britain and is very popular in Ukraine. He remained mainly silent on politics.
In the interview, Mr. Poroshenko said he had met Mr. Zaluzhny in London, but he refused to disclose the details of their talks. An assistant from Mr. Poroshenko said that he had accepted a dedicated copy of the general’s biography, “Iron General”.
As Mr. Zelensky negotiated with Trump administration, Mr. Poroshenko offered advice through intermediaries, he said.
“Trump can ask unexpected questions, I can even say rude,” said Poroshenko.
During a meeting at the first Trump administration, Mr. Poroshenko said, Trump asked if he could get an honest answer to a question. Mr. Poroshenko said yes. Mr. Trump then looked closely and asked: “” Tell me, is Crimea Russian? “”
Mr. Poroshenko said he replied that Crimea, the peninsula that Russia seized in 2014, was Ukrainian and asked what aroused the question. Trump then said that a Russian friend told him that the peninsula should be Russian, said Poroshenko.
Mr. Poroshenko has pursued a transactional foreign policy with the United States which has partially paid. This included the purchases of Pennsylvania coal which preserved certain jobs in a swing state, even if Ukraine has its own abundant coal.
Before the end of Mr. Trump’s first term, the administration proposed an official declaration, known as the Crimea declaration, which said that Ukrainian American policy.
“It is not easy,” said Mr. Poroshenko about Trump. “But now is the moment of diplomacy.”