'Interim government' for elections: Putin's remarks on Ukraine and West's reaction

What Putin said

The Russian leader made the statement while talking to the sailors of the nuclear submarine Arkhangelsk on the evening of March 27.

Putin proposed to introduce an external “interim government under the auspices of the United Nations” in Ukraine to hold elections.

“In principle, of course, it would be possible to discuss the possibility of an interim government in Ukraine under the auspices of the UN, the US, with European countries, of course, with our partners and friends. In order to hold democratic elections, in order to bring to power a capable government that enjoys the trust of the people, and then start negotiating a peace treaty with them,” he said.

With a Ukrainian government formed under such conditions, Putin believes, it will be possible to sign “legitimate documents that will be recognized worldwide and will be reliable.”

“I'm not saying that there are no other options, but this is one of the options, and there is such a practice in the work of the UN,” he said.

He mentioned East Timor, Papua New Guinea, and parts of the former Yugoslavia as examples of countries where “there have been several times what is called external government, interim administration” within the framework of UN peacekeeping.

Ukraine's reaction

Dmytro Lytvyn, Ukraine's presidential communications adviser, responded sharply to Putin's statement. He advised Putin to “just pop some pills to kickstart his brain activity” if he “is once again struggling to understand who he needs to engage with to seriously move toward ending this war.”

Lytvyn emphasized that over the past 24 hours, Russia had struck at least two times at Ukraine's energy sector, despite the so-called energy truce.

"By the way, in just the past 24 hours, there have already been at least two confirmed Russian strikes that damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and that’s without even having the full reports for the day yet,” he wrote on X.

The head of the Center for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, said that Putin is trying to disrupt the movement toward peace and delay the negotiation process.

“Regarding Putin's statements, he is doing everything to delay and disrupt the movement towards peace, because he is not interested in ending the war. That's why he is constantly putting forward some crazy ideas and demands. It is possible to narrow his room for maneuver through tough economic restrictions on Russia and the strengthening of Ukraine. I hope this will become clear if Russia does not cease fire by Easter,” Kovalenko said.

He added that Putin is deliberately humiliating US President Donald Trump by hitting Ukraine's energy infrastructure and putting forward new crazy conditions.

Reaction in the West

An unnamed representative of the White House National Security Council, quoted by Reuters, when asked about Putin's statement, said that Ukraine's governance is determined by its Constitution and people.

Putin has previously stated on several occasions that he did not consider Volodymyr Zelenskyy to be the legitimate president of Ukraine. He demands elections.

The presidential election in Ukraine was supposed to take place in 2024. Ukrainian law prohibits holding elections during martial law. Ukraine's leadership has emphasized that elections will be held after the war is over.

World leaders recognize Zelenskyy's legitimacy. Yet, after the first talks between the US and Russian delegations in Saudi Arabia, US President Donald Trump said that the president of Ukraine allegedly had a trust rating of only 4%, effectively repeating the Russian propaganda. Later, he also called the President of Ukraine a “dictator,” although he later denied his words.

Zelenskyy urged the American president not to repeat Russian disinformation.

According to the latest KIIS poll, the level of trust in Volodymyr Zelenskyy among Ukrainians is 69%.