Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has agreed to hold elections if there is a ceasefire. However, Eastern Ukraine citizens, those currently living in the Donbas region, who are supportive of Russia, will not be permitted to vote.
This creates a rather bizarre official hypocrisy within the Zelenskyy regime. The official position of Zelenskyy is that Eastern Ukraine will never be accepted as a part of the Russian federation.
Zelenskyy has recently noted, with EU leadership support, that his government will never recognize Eastern Ukraine as part of the Russian federation. However, this same region, approximately 20% of Ukraine, will not be permitted to participate in his controlled election.
Essentially, any Ukraine resident who does not support Zelenskyy will not be permitted to vote in any election, if any election is ever permitted. Additionally, Zelenskyy notes that “there is the practice of voting abroad,” however, any region not controlled by Zelenskyy cannot submit votes.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy – “It is not up to Putin to decide when or in what format elections in Ukraine will take place, because these elections are exclusively for Ukrainian citizens. Therefore, he will certainly not influence anything, let alone the outcome.
Voting is carried out by citizens of Ukraine who are within the country, on Ukrainian-controlled territory. Here, we can ensure fair and transparent elections. There is also the practice of voting abroad. Elections cannot be held in territories not controlled by Ukraine, because it is obvious how they would be conducted – just as Russia always does.
Overall, elections depend on two factors: security and legislation. Security must be addressed; this is the top priority. It is important that our military personnel, who are defending the country, are able to vote. Every citizen has an absolute right to vote.
We have already discussed this with our U.S. partners; they raised this issue. If they raise it, it means they know how to help us ensure safe elections. This, primarily, could involve a ceasefire, or bringing the war to an end, or a ceasefire, at least for the duration of the elections.” {source}
Also from Zelenskyy:
We are moving at a fairly rapid pace, and our team in Florida has been working with the American side. European representatives were also invited. These negotiations are constructive and this matters. Much depends on whether Russia feels the need to end the war for real – it must not be a rhetorical or political game on Russia’s part. Unfortunately, the real signals coming from Russia remain only negative: assaults along the frontline, Russian war crimes in border areas, and continued strikes against our infrastructure. It is essential that the world does not remain silent about all of this. {source}
[…] Peace is better than war, but not at any cost, because we have already paid a high price. What matters for us is a just, durable peace – one that cannot be violated by another whim of Putin or any other Putin-like figure. It is extremely important to have strong security guarantees in place to prevent even the thought or the physical ability to come back to us with aggression.
I do not see the Budapest Memorandum as an agreement; I see it as nothing more than a piece of paper, because our territories were occupied, and so many people were killed. And this agreement did not protect us. I do not consider it strong or effective.
Therefore, for me, an agreement is not just about signing a document. One must know the details: what will happen if the Russians come with aggression and launch another war. How will the Americans and Europeans respond? How will our partners respond? What deterrence package will Ukraine have? What will be present on Ukrainian territory? How will our army be equipped? How strong will it be, and what reserves will we have? What can we count on? What sanctions package will be imposed simultaneously on the aggressor? {source}
Why can’t Russia just fix the election like they always do? 😉
Putin could hire a few Democrats to teach him the ropes!
Belarus and Ukraine, both Soviet Republics, should have been part of the Russian Federation post Soviet Union. They are both a result of post Soviet Union Western and Russian corruption. Pretty much everything was for sale post Soviet Union. That is why Putin went ballistic on Russian oligarchs from that time period. In the West you had Soros and the Harvard Endowment.
A side note regarding fencing. One of the only early oligarchs to survive was Gaspron Alisher Usmanov. Usmanov is from Uzbekistan and was a Soviet sabre fencer and later became head of the Russian Fencing Federation. Later he became President of the International Fencing Federation / FIE . He is currently suspended because of the Special Operation but easily won re-election this past summer. Usmanov’s now ex wife and friend of Putin was Soviet and Russian Federation Rhythmic gymnastics coach. She introduced a top + famous Russian women Rhythmic gymnast to Putin. I believe she had child with Putin. Women’s Rhythmic Gymnastics is a popular TV sport in Russia.
Putin is a strong supporter of fencing and all martial sports. He was a Judo athlete during the Soviet Union and still practices. The recent president of tht Russian Olympic committee was an multple Olympic gold medalist Soviet and Russian Federation sabre fencer by the name of Pozdniakov.
Fencing especially sabre fencing is well known in Ukraine. Women’s sabre fencer Olga Kharlan is probably the top decorated Ukrainian women’s athlete. Multiple Olympic medals including gold. The current president of Ukrainian Olympic committee was a men’s sabre Olympic Gold medalist on the 1992 Unified team.
I currently fence for a club that was founded by an Olympic and multiple World Champion ex Soviet sabre fencer. We are a very strong club. I been fencing sabre at the national and world levels since age 13 and now 64.
Sorry for this long rant but I would guess that most people in the West are not aware of Putin’s strong ties to past Soviet sport. Also the the current oligarch support of Olympic sports.
Sabre fencing is especially brutal even with a protective tunic the fencers are covered in welts.
I am an Olympic sport sabre fencer so scored electronically. Target is from the waste up and can cut and hit with the point. It’s by far the fastest of the 3 weapons and only one that allows hits with the side of the blade. I still occasionally get welts, jams and cuts. We wear ballistic nylon uniforms and gloves and masks yhst have to pass 1600 Newton impact. This is mostly for a broken blade near the tip. We have to go through weapons check prior to tournaments. International Fencing Federation tournaments have very strict weapons checks. Both of my knees and right hip are in bad condition from the wear. I made bronze in age 60-69 men’s sabre and team gold USA at 2023 Veterans (Age Group) Fencing World Championships. In fencing we have Cadet (under 17) Junior (under 20), Senior (Open, Olympics) and Veterans ( age 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70+)
SF take care when sharing personal info. Practice good infosec.
Not everyone has good intentions.
Thank you for the warning.. I already have a web presence because of fencing.
He knows how to use a sabre and probably has one easily reachable at home😎
back in my day, I don’t know anyone who wore gloves or if they were even allowed.
In Olympic sport fencing we always wore gloves. Sabre wasn’t electrified until the late 1980s. Epee was electrified in the 1940s and Foil in the 1950s.
especially hands and wrists.
Your post represents the primary reason the comments section on CTR are valuable and worth time to read. As there are a few very knowledgeable people who share insights for use toward gaining actual factual knowledge.
I totally agree that both Belarus and the various cobbled together regions known as the Ukraine SSR should have become oblasts in the RF.
Perhaps the regions liberated and/or retained by the USSR from the previously nazi/fascist Romania and Hungary invaders along with Poland should have been repatriated at that time.
This would have resulted in the Bandera/nazi cults of the Lvov region being Polands’ problem. Removing what is the central and critical issue of de-nazifying Ukraine.
Its’ very appropriate to bring up the issue of the oligarchs. These were highly connected communists who conspired with our western vulture capitalist corporations to enrich themselves by raping and looting the resources of both Russia and Ukraine.
The type of exploitation and removing national sovereignty Rubio is attempting to reinstate in Venezuela.
Russia was blessed by the fact Putin stood up to and purged these scum, and worked tirelessly to regain actual sovereignty for Russia, a 1,500 year old nation state.
Ukraine never produced cogent leadership to oust their traitorous oligarchs. The very nature of the fractured ethnic, religious and political populations and longstanding hatreds are the ideal conditions template preferred by our State Department/CIA complex to exploit and install puppet governance.
It is a toxic mess now and Russia must reincorporate all lands east of the Dnepr, Kharkov, Sumy, and Odessa regions. Probably will need to occupy Kiev for a few years to extinguish the corruption.
I personally enjoy the music and display of the traditional Cossak sword dancing.
There is so much culture, history, variety and eductated people that most Americans haven’t a clue of.
Thanks! Same back to you!
Fencing in America is very tied to Eastern Europe. I started fencing in high school in north Jersey in the mid 1970s and received an athletic scholarship for fencing.
We had a strong Hungarian presence from the mid 1950 specifically in sabre. Only men fenced sabre up to mid the 1990s.
In late 1970s started seeing Soviet defectors and into the 1980s defectors from Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania.
After the Soviet Union fell the flood gates opened. Many top Eastern European and Soviet coaches came to America. That is why the USA is very good at fencing now.
This a one of the coolest compilation videos of Russian women performing the Dance of the Sabres.
My favorites are the pretty girl in blue at 1:30 (there are other videos of her by herself on yt), the soldier lady at 3:15, and the girl in white with the tall boots throughout the video and at the end.
The lady in the modern grey dress at the beginning and throughout is also very talented.
Thank you for sharing your experiences, Sabrefencer.
Absolutely fascinating.
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Loved this. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you! The East Europeans and Soviets were the best in Olympic sabre fencing. They are still great. The Russian Federation is really strong in all three weapons but they have fence now as AIN “Individual Neutral Athlete” because the Special Operation.
Juggling is for the circus
LOL
Never bring a knife to a gun fight.
Ukraine was an independent country in 800 A.D., at a time when Moscow didn’t even control itself. What is called Russia even stole the name of the Ukrainians, who in those days were called the Rus. And the people who did live where Moscow is now, spoke Finnish. Even at the time of the Mongol invasions 400 years later in the 1200s. The Ukrainians resisted and the Mongol destroyed Kyiv, but the Ukrainians kept fighting as they retreated toward Hungary, then Genghis Khan died, and all the Mongol had to go back to Mongolia to vote for the next leader. The way they voted, it mattered how many people were in your army, so all the contenders took everybody with them.
Yes, but the post Soviet Ukraine was totally different borders. It was the same borders as the Soviet Republic of Ukraine.
Here is an article from 2018 with Putin and Pozdnyakov when Pozdnyakov became President of the Russian Olympic Commitee.
http://www.en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/57826
Thank you so much Sabrefencer for your posts today. My roots come from Slovakia (18 miles from the then Russian border). All Grandparents came into this country legally on boats and went through Ellis Island. Most likely in steerage quarters. Some went back again, and decided no thanks and returned.
Can’t believe how different that was from the times we live in now. Anyways, I am sending a prayer request for Zelensky.
That he learns to “Live and Let Live.” That is going to take MANY PRAYERS>
Peter Gabriel _ Live and Let Live
https://search.brave.com/search?q=Peter+Gabriel-+Live+and+Let+Live&source=desktop
What was the time period? Was it during Austrian Hungarian Empire? That would be up to 1919? Are you sure it wasn’t Galicia?
Why is this little degenerate scumbag still talking like he’s holding some cards in the game??
It is long past time for Team Trump to throw him under the bus or neuter him such that he stops making his ridiculous demands.
Why the hell anyone is still paying attention to ANYTHING he says is beyond my comprehension.
Totally agree and then some. It is at the point of being embarrassing and stupid.
The simple answer is that he’s delusional. Sometimes the puppet doesn’t realize they’re a puppet until their strings are cut.
I concur. Beyond tiresome.
This is perfect photo of the little brat.
LOVE^^^^^^
Funniest Trump – Zelensky Meeting Memes
Elections in Ukraine, they are joking right! Now we have election talk again. This time to remove the Trump problem.
The Eurotrash Nuland McCain Obama Biden started the mess, as we know back in 2013/2014. It worked and they installed another Little Adolf. They viewed Ukraine as a wide-open road straight to Moscow and its riches
My thinking is we will see a civil war in Ukraine and the new Little Adolf’s body found in the rubble burn to a crispy creator or hanging from a bridge. Nearly half of Ukraine’s citizens left the country when the war started, do we think they are not interested in their homeland’s future after the war. I think they will be very interested in reconstruction after the war, without Little Adolf Z involved.
Election where Z wins = civil war. My opinion.
This is just how a drug addict sounds. If he wants money from anyone , anywhere at any time to keep this going he should sell everything he owns. EVERYTHING.
I can bet if Zee-moron allows elections, his will insist on Dominion voting machines. And then, if he allows the people in the East to vote, he will “allow” them to use mail in ballots.
Presto- vreizo! He wins. POS.
The puppet like Biden
Once again, Zelensky demonstrates why there’s good reason to be sympathetic to the Russian side of the argument. Eastern Ukraine is Ukranian! We cannot allow them to become part of Russia! Eastern Ukraine is too Russian! We cannot allow them to sway our elections! I get that you can’t send a truck across the lines with a white flag to allow people to vote – or maybe you could even do that – but to say from the outset that you’re just going to exclude a bunch of people is nonsense. It’s just as bad as no elections.
It’d be a great way for Reddit’s Nepoleon to buy a few more years in power though: get himself elected by the pro-EU western part of Ukarine, then sue for peace and rule over a bunch of people who didn’t and wouldn’t vote for him. Poor Ukraine. We’ve decimated their fighting-age male population, anyone with any sense and the means has fled, and I don’t know how they’ll ever reagain themselves. They’re more a money laundring operation than soverign country.
nobody who was in the state occupied by the confederate army got to vote in 1864. This is a perfectly normal standard.
If you’re the winner; Ukraine is not winning.
Zelensky isn’t serious about peace. He is addicted to power and grifting. His EU partners of the willing are co-conspirators of the same grift and equally not serious about peace. US needs to walk away pull all monetary and military support for both Zelenskyy and the EU.
So Zelenskyy wants the Eastern Oblasts back, but doesn’t want them to be able to vote.
Well then, those 4 have no further place in the Ukrainian union.
That makes it simpler. Russia just promises them MORE freedom.
Lay down your weapons Ukraine solders, and retreat back to “Zelenskyy-Ukraine”.
This was all really set to happen after 2014, when the West replaced the elected Ukraine president, & the government & neoNazi’s started abusing the lives of those in the 4 provinces anyway.
Remember, the war started after Boris Johnson and Biden junked the last peace agreement in 2021-22 timeframe.
You sound surprised.
Zelensky looking to US to insure fair elections . . .
Irony meter won’t even power up.
Views of Vladimir Putin Among American Voters
Vladimir Putin is deeply unpopular among American voters, with consistent polling showing strong disapproval across demographic and political lines.
A March 2025 Quinnipiac University poll found that 81% of voters hold an unfavorable view of Putin, while only 7% view him favorably.Clearly, the huge majority of CTH commenters are in the 7%.
That doesn’t make them necessarily all wrong, but it places them in a very small (and isolated?) minority of Americans.
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.
~Mark Twain
And besides that, Quinnipiac is a libtard university with Federal Election Commission (FEC) data showing that during the 2020 election cycle, over 90% of political donations from university employees went to Democratic candidates.
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Is this a test case for something similar for the USA?
“Elections are too important to be left up to the voters”
More like what Britain’s Starmer is planning.
Well, seeing as Germany doesn’t allow AfD to run in elections, France bans Le Pen from running, the EU cancelled the results of Romania’s presidential election and banned the winner from running again and the UK cancelled local elections where Reform would win, Zelenskyy has shown that Ukraine has the kind of “Our Democracy”™ fully compatible with EU membership.
The Russians cite a few reasons for the Ukraine war.
1: The Russians say america financed a coup there. The state dept bragged some months back that they helped finance “pro democracy groups” in the Ukraine and that these groups helped flip the election.
2: Shortly after the election the Ukraine govt tried to throw Russia out of their decades old naval base in the crimea (sevestpol). Russia said no, the Ukraine threatened to seize it, and Russia seized the crimea.
3: Shortly after the crimea invasion America started sending BILLIONS in weapons and aid into the Ukraine. When Russia complained Obama said he didn’t care what Russia thought. Russia felt the build up on its borders was a threat and felt if they waited they would be treated like syria or libya, etc had been.
4: The donbas was largely pro-russia in 2014 and had many Russian speakers when the Ukraine avoz brigade started military operations against civilians. The goal of the avoz brigade was to drive out Russians and Russian speakers in bleeding kansas type warfare. The avoz brigade was so bad the democratic led Congress vetoed aid to the Ukraine twice (2014 and 2016) due to their atrocities and being neo fascist natzees. Russia cited the existence of natzees in the Ukraine killing Russians as a reason.
5: the Ukraine wanted in NATO. America promised no eastward expansion a dozen countries ago and continued to expand. Russia said they would not permit it on their border and tried to call Biden on the hotline. Biden literally refused to take the call and laughed about it at a press conference.
America has zero vital national interests in the Ukraine.
It looks to me like if we hadn’t meddled and hadn’t tried to mess around with Russia none of this was would have happened. This was all neo-cons playing their stupid games.
We played FA and now we are in the FO part.
It doesn’t shock me the ukraine refuses to acknowledge the donbas voters. They predominately favor Russia just as the Western voters primary oppose it.
It does shock me how many people have zero clue about how this war started.
We wouldn’t accept a hostile country on our borders. Why should Russia?
Great synopsis, William; very accurate, informative, and concise.
There are no doubt many people who have zero clue with regard to the background on the conflict.
However, when it comes to internet discussions, not very often do the clueless comment.
Their commentary is usually limited to short mindless drive-bys.
Most of the ridiculously lengthy commentary such as what we are seeing here, especially on websites like this one, are from people (operatives/bots) on a narrative-forming mission.
Deliberate propaganda.
Notice that their messages are comprised of mainstream talking-points just like the sound bites we hear coming out of the mouths of WARPIGS like Roger Wicker and Mimsey Graham.
Also notice that the accounts tend to limit their replies/commentary to one particular topic.
None of the accounts are regular contributors, few of them participate in other type discussions; and they only come out with anti-Russia/pro-Ukraine hype.
My policy is to never cut them any slack.
The good news is that the USAID/NGO monies have dried up so there aren’t so many of them these days.
Cheers!
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So, according to Zelensky, no absentee ballots. Also, no Russian controlled areas of Ukraine. I thought he won’t give up those areas.
There is only one word for Zelensky – DICTATOR.
He wants to totally control the election to achieve the desired outcome of him remaining in power. Only his supporters are allowed to vote.
Zelensky wants to make sure he is President when all of that reconstruction money comes into Ukraine. He didn’t embezzle enough money yet.
As far as an election Zelensky will now allow the 500,000 to a million Ukraine that went to Russia for safety during the war. Nor any of their citizens in any other country ie the US or other European countries. Poland has the most. And these countries fund the immigrants, and many won’t take a job. A lot of EU countries are maxed out but Germany, the country which is almost bankrupt has many more Ukrainians than other European country. But there are lot in US too, which I think the US has tried to send them back. Everything Zelensky says is a lie. And there’s word Europe is trying to get rid of him very soon.
zelensky could never run an honest election, every word he says us a lie.
I meant Zelensky will not allow anyone out of the country and the areas Russia have taken over to vote. His ace in his hand so he will threaten all the people to vote for him.