Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he's ready to put his presidency to a vote — if Vladimir Putin gives him 60 days of quiet first.
"Please tell Putin, give us two months, 60 days of total ceasefire, 60 days, and we will organize elections," Zelenskyy told ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.
Zelenskyy makes the 60-day offer on ABC's "This Week".
The offer was a direct answer to President Donald Trump, who said Saturday that "it's time for Ukraine to get a new president." Zelenskyy pushed back: "it's up to Ukrainians" to choose their leader, he said — adding that Putin would also like to change who's leading Ukraine.
Ukraine's constitution bars elections under martial law, in place since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. Zelenskyy's five-year term expired in May 2024. Trump has hammered him over it since February 2025, when he called him "a dictator without elections."
Zelenskyy has set the 60-day condition before. In December 2025 he called it the minimum time needed to arrange a referendum on a peace plan. Russia has not publicly responded to the latest offer.
The exchange caps a brutal weekend between Washington and Kyiv. On Saturday, Trump told reporters outside the White House that Ukraine needs "a new leader who can make a deal." "He could have made many deals, and for some reason, he never does."
Trump also ordered Zelenskyy to stop striking Russian oil refineries, saying the attacks were making the world's diesel problem worse. "He better damn well stop," the president said — a day after announcing that Russia would "immediately supply over 300,000 tons of diesel fuel to the American and global marketplace."
Zelenskyy blasted the diesel deal as a "weak decision" and "unworthy of our partners," warning that every extra billion Russia earns from sanctions relief would be spent on new attacks. Overnight, Ukrainian drones struck the NZNP oil-loading terminal in Rostov-on-Don, setting off a large fire.