Secret talks revealed: Trump allies meet with Zelensky’s rivals

Four senior members of US President Donald Trump’s inner circle held secret meetings with some of the most prominent political figures known to oppose Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky.

Three Ukrainian parliamentarians and a US Republican foreign policy expert told Politico that Trump’s top allies met with former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and senior members of the party of Zelensky’s predecessor, Petro Poroshenko.

The focus of the talks was on whether presidential elections could be held quickly in Ukraine. The elections are being postponed because Ukraine is at war and under martial law.

Proponents of postponement say they could be chaotic and favor Russia because of the large number of potential voters serving on the front line or living abroad as refugees.

Trump’s aides are confident that Zelensky will lose votes due to war fatigue and public disillusionment with widespread corruption.

Indeed, polls show that Zelensky’s approval ratings are in decline. The latest Survation poll, however, shows Zelensky still ahead in the presidential race.

Although the Trump camp hopes that an election will topple Zelensky, Zelensky still seems to be much more popular than Tymoshenko and Poroshenko.

In a poll conducted this week by the British polling company Survation after the White House debate, 44% of respondents said they would support Zelensky for president.

Zelensky’s closest rival, by more than 20 points, is Valerii Zaluzhnyi, a former army commander who now serves as Ukraine’s ambassador to Britain.

Poroshenko, known as the “Chocolate King” because of his confectionery factories, received only 10% support, while Tymoshenko received only 5.7%.

The key to all the plans discussed in the back channels is to hold presidential elections after a temporary ceasefire has been agreed upon, but before full-scale peace negotiations begin in earnest.

Both Tymoshenko and Poroshenko are publicly opposed to holding elections before the end of hostilities, as is Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

However, a senior Republican foreign policy expert told Politico, “Poroshenko’s people and Yulia, they all talk to Trump World, positioning themselves as people with whom it would be easier to work. And they are people who will agree to a lot of things Zelensky doesn’t agree with,” the expert told Politico.

Asked whether Tymoshenko had discussed the presidential election or peace negotiations with members of the US administration or Trump’s circle, her spokeswoman, Natalia Lysova, thanked Politico for its interest and said, “We will not comment on this yet.”

Politico also contacted Poroshenko’s European Solidarity Party to ask whether they had discussed the elections with Trump’s people. “Our rhetoric is not about forcing elections, but about securing free and fair post-war competitive elections in our country,” the press office responded.

“It is also logical that the contacts will include the presentation of President Poroshenko and European Solidarity’s vision of ways to end the war with a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace and the limits of possible concessions at the negotiating points,” the statement added.

According to Politico, in recent weeks, Tymoshenko has been approaching MPs from rival parties to persuade them to leave their party and join her group.

Tymoshenko has been telling MPs that Zelensky will soon have no choice but to go to the polls, and that this is a golden opportunity to build a new parliamentary majority.