Arya News - “It’s obvious that he’s trying to evade Trump’s demands to sign an agreement by December 25 ceding certain territories and agreeing to the proposals in Trump’s plan,” military analyst Viktor Litovkin told Sputnik, commenting on Zelensky’s conditional agreement to elections after facing criticism from Trump.
“Holding presidential elections requires a decision by the Verkhovna Rada [parliament, ed.], a preparatory period, and so on. This, as Zelensky himself says, would require 90-150 days,” Litovkin pointed out.On top of that, Zelensky’s demands for a ceasefire during the vote are an absolute non-starter for Russia, the observer said.Litovkin recalled that Russia already agreed to a ceasefire once, when, during the Istanbul negotiations in 2022, “the Ukrainian side demanded that we withdraw our troops from Ukrainian territory because ‘agreements aren’t signed with a gun to your head’. We did so, and they immediately decided to continue hostilities.”As for Zelensky’s proposals for a referendum in the conflict area, that too is a no-go for Moscow, Litovkin says, because Russia has already held referendums in the regions, and people voted to join Russia.Finally, as far as the proposals for a ‘demilitarized zone’ in lieu of formal territorial concessions, that would also be unacceptable for the Russian side, Litovkin argues.The demilitarized zone concept amounts to “wishful thinking,” and is another attempt to undermine Russia’s military victory in the diplomatic arena. “It’s a pointless exercise. Russia will never agree to this,” Litovkin summed up.