Our sources report that the Office of the President is considering using the election track as a tool for a temporary truce. According to sources familiar with internal discussions, this may be the only way to buy time against the backdrop of a sharp deterioration in the situation on the front and the inability of the Armed Forces to hold the defense line without an operational pause.
According to Bankova, the key point should be to shift the emphasis in Donald Trump's plan: not on the issue of territories that the US and Russia are trying to impose on Ukraine as an object for compromise, but on the issue of the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government. This is what, according to sources, could become the entry point for creating a new political format for negotiations.
The interlocutors explain that legitimacy is a universal argument that Washington is ready to hear, and therefore Kyiv may try to use it to reformat the negotiation process. Given that it is impossible to hold elections without a ceasefire, the "electoral track" automatically creates a prerequisite for a short-term truce.
According to sources, this scenario looks like this:
first, a truce for the elections,
then, formal legitimization of power in the eyes of Washington,
and only after that, the implementation of Trump's broader peace plan.
The US administration of Donald Trump has publicly insisted on the need for elections in Ukraine and considers this to be one of the key elements of a political settlement. Trump himself has repeatedly stated that Ukrainians should be given the opportunity to "renew their mandate of power."
While official negotiations between Kyiv and Washington are ongoing, sources say that the electoral component may be the tool through which Bankova will try to seize the initiative on the peace track.
