Volodymyr Zelenskyy went from TV star to Ukraine's president with a landslide victory in 2019.
Now he's poised to face an even bigger electoral challenge: putting his wartime presidency to a vote for the first time since Russia launched its all-out invasion more than three years ago.
Amid mounting pressure from Western backers, Ukrainian authorities are quietly laying the groundwork for a new election, a vote that would test the strength of Zelenskyy's patriotic support and whether war-weary Ukrainians want new leadership.
Officials have denied efforts are under way, citing longstanding arguments that martial law, which was declared shortly after Russian forces invaded in February 2022, precludes holding any vote.
"We are not preparing to hold elections because elections in wartime are impossible, according to the constitution, current legislation, and common sense due to security challenges," Dmytro Lytvyn, a spokesman for the presidential office, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.
But officials have in fact started planning details and figuring out aspects ranging from printing ballots to ensuring security at polling stations and making sure millions of Ukrainian refugees living outside the country can vote.
"I can see that in recent months there have been real preparations for elections," said Oleksiy Koshel, who heads the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, an NGO. "We see lots of signs of activity at election headquarters, advertisements quietly circulating, millions of special informational bulletins about party leaders being distributed."
The campaign "has de-facto really already started," Koshel said.
Olena Davlikanova, a Kyiv-based scholar and fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington, said there are many signs political parties are preparing for a new vote. But, she said, it would be impossible to do without Russia actually agreeing to a cease-fire.
"Many of us, we do not believe that [President Vladimir] Putin will stick to his word," Davlikanova told RFE/RL. "Without a cease-fire, elections are impossible to hold in Ukraine."
Servant Of The People
First as part of a beloved comedy troupe, and then as a fictional high-school teacher who is catapulted to the presidency in the TV series Servant of the People, Zelenskyy won a resounding victory in 2019, defeating incumbent Petro Poroshenko.
Ukrainians were drawn to his fresh-faced, media-savvy personality, as well as his promises to normalize relations with Putin, and with Russia more broadly. Less than three years into Zelenskyy's presidency, however, Putin ordered more than 100,000 troops into Ukraine, launching the largest land war in Europe since World War II.
Ukrainians have continued to rally behind Zelenskyy's leadership, even as Kyiv's troops have over the past year suffered setback after setback.
Russian troops are grinding forward at multiple locations. A much-vaunted counteroffensive in 2023 failed. Military commanders and political leaders are squabbling over how to bolster recruitment and replenish depleted ranks. The country's top military officer was pushed out, as was its defense minister.
Ukrainian presidents are elected to five-year terms; Zelenskyy should have stood for reelection in 2024. But government officials have insisted a new election is legally impossible under martial law, not to mention the logistical hurdles.
That's opened the door for outside criticism. Putin, who has questioned the very existence of the Ukrainian state, has accused Zelenskyy of being an illegitimate president because of the lack of elections. Last week, he suggested the entire country be put under a United Nations-backed transitional government.
"No one cares what Putin is saying because Ukrainian legislation is very clear: All power is legitimate unless the martial law is lifted and elections are organized in a duly manner," Davlikanova said. "So Putin can do you know what to himself."
"Putin offered UN oversight over Ukraine," she said. "We are saying we offer United Nations' oversight to Moscow, because they haven't had real, fair elections since 1996."
But there's also been criticism from the United States, the largest single supplier of weaponry to Ukraine's military.
Just before a confrontational Oval Office meeting in February, US President Donald Trump -- whose fraught relationship with Zelenskyy dates back to his first term in the White House -- called him a "dictator without elections."
The outside criticism has bolstered Zelenskyy's standing among Ukrainians. One poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology showed Zelenskyy's trust doubling in recent weeks. Shortly after the Oval Office meeting, Ukraine's parliament adopted a resolution backing Zelenskyy and stating that new elections will be held only after a "comprehensive, just, and sustainable peace" is in place.
For Zelenskyy's backers, that would tip the decision toward holding a new vote sooner rather than later to box out any challengers: first and foremost, Valery Zaluzhniy, the popular former commander-in-chief who is now Kyiv's ambassador to London.
Zaluzhniy was pushed out by Zelenskyy after openly questioning government decision-making in a November 2023 essay.
Since landing in London, Zaluzhniy has said nothing publicly about challenging Zelenskyy. However, he regularly shows up at the top, or near the top, of public opinion polls.
Other prominent political figures have also signaled they were considering challenging Zelenskyy if a vote goes forward. In February, Poroshenko, the wealthy businessman whom Zelenskyy defeated, raised eyebrows when he traveled to Washington, D.C., for meeting with administration officials.
Speaking at a conference, Poroshenko said Zelenskyy should have been working on a national coalition. "Instead of that we have a very strange preparation for elections," he said.
"According to my information, the decision was made to organize and hold presidential elections as soon as possible after the hostilities end," Oleksiy Honcharenko, an opposition lawmaker, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service.
Logistical Hurdles
If a US-brokered cease-fire were to take hold, election law requires at least 60 days for candidates to campaign. If it were to begin on April 20 -- Easter Sunday -- as Finland's president said he proposed to Trump, that would mean the earliest balloting could actually take place in early July.
But logistical details of organizing are massive. Millions of Ukrainians are refugees in foreign countries, and getting them ballots alone is a major challenge. So is providing soldiers fighting in frontline positions the opportunity cast their vote.
"Now there seems to be a consensus in society and among politicians that a longer period of time is needed to prepare for elections after the end of martial law than that specified by law," said Oleh Didenko, who heads the Central Election Commission, said in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda.
While Ukrainians have welcomed US weaponry, voters are wary about how steadfast US support will be in the future, Davlikanova said.
"Whatever the Americans are doing, whoever they are talking to, the Ukrainian people understand," she said.
"So we understand that we will rely on ourselves," she said.
