The first day of the total invasion of Russia, the president Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and his main political opponent at home squeezing his hand, putting aside their fierce rivalry to focus on the enemy. The typically Rauca policy of the country has become largely dormant for the three years that followed.
Now, while the peace talks led by the Trump administration have aroused prospects for a ceased the fire and any elections, the political jockey has returned.
Ukrainian politicians are maneuvering at home and move behind the scenes of the Trump administration, who did not secretly secretly make his contempt for Mr. Zelensky, despite his lionisation on the world phase for having resisted Russia.
Petro O. Poroshenko, former Ukrainian president and leader of a rival party, He says that the best way to smooth out the peace interviews is to bring opposition figures in the government.
Poroshenko had previously floated the idea of reviewing Ukraine’s policy to form a national unity government, which could benefit from his party. He revived the proposal after meeting the oval office of Mr. Zelensky with President Trump in February and a call from a republican senator for him to resign.
Mr. Zelensky did not show any interest in forming a coalition of ministers that would include opposition data. Instead, his government has increased the pressure on opponents by law enforcement agencies and security agencies.
The mayor of Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, said that Zelensky has abused the powers of martial law to cancel the city council. In January, the Ukrainian National Security Council frozen the bank accounts of Mr. Poroshenko, while leveling specific accusations.
“We have no other option different from a national unity coalition, a national unity government,” said Poroshenko in an interview on Wednesday. “We should have units in Parliament and demonstrate unity in the country. And the results of this decision should be stopped at war.”
Mr. Zelensky’s five -year mandate, who would have expired last year, was extended pursuant to martial law. The elections are legally prohibited in accordance with martial law and little practical as long as Ukraine remains at war.
Almost a month ago, Ukraine offered an unconditional fire for the month that Russia has not accepted. An envoy of Trump Administration, Steve Witkoff, traveled to Russia on Friday, probably in an attempt to rekindle the negotiations.
Poroshenko said that the interviews could obtain a push if Mr. Zelensky allowed political opponents to enter the government, given that Trump defined Mr. Zelensky a “dictator without elections”. That echoed to the criticisms of the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, who said he will not sign a peace agreement with Mr. Zelensky.
Poroshenko said he did not agree with the evaluation of Signor Trump of Zelensky as a dictator.
But with the prospect of a ceased the fire and elections, Poroshenko started criticizing the president more openly. The sanctions that the National Security Council has placed on Poroshenko has frozen its bank accounts and could exclude it from the future elections.
Poroshenko defined the sanctions against him “disastrous, unconstitutional and extrajudicial”. If he had been arrested, he said, he would therefore have said that Ukraine is traveled for dictatorship.
The intense rivalry between the two Ukrainian leaders dates back to years ago. Poroshenko led Ukraine from 2014 to 2019. After Mr. Zelensky defeated him, the new government then asked Mr. Poroshenko as a witness in a barrage of criminal cases that Poroshenko defined politically motivated.
Even if the tanks infected themselves on the border before Russia invaded in 2022, the struggle continued in Ukraine: public ministries sought a arrest warrant for Poroshenko, although he had been rejected by a judge.
Poroshenko has a support base in Ukrainian nationalist policy, in particular in western and central Ukraine, while Mr. Zelensky in the 2019 race won broad support throughout the country, also by Russian speakers in central and oriental Ukraine.
The two men met on the morning of February 24, 2022, when Russia began its assault, to put aside their rivalry. Mr. Zelensky asked what Mr. Poroshenko could do. The former president said he asked 5,000 Kalashnikov to arm his supporters against the Russians and that Mr. Zelensky had provided weapons.
Poroshenko, 59, has little chance of winning a presidential election, the spectacle of the polls. It has been constantly in third place or lower, behind Mr. Zelensky and a former army commander, General Valery Zaluzhny.
Political analysts say that Mr. Poroshenko could be connected to an electoral alliance with General Zaluzhny, who is ambassador to Great Britain and is wildly popular in Ukraine. He remained mostly silent about politics.
In the interview, Poroshenko said he met Mr. Zaluzhny in London, but refused to reveal the details of their interviews. A assistant by Mr. Poroshenko said he accepted an autographed copy of the general biography, “Iron General”.
While Mr. Zelensky negotiated with the Trump administration, Poroshenko offered advice through intermediaries, he said.
“Trump can ask unexpected questions, I can also say rude,” said Poroshenko.
In a meeting during the first Trump administration, Poroshenko said, Mr. Trump asked if he could get an honest answer to a question. Mr. Poroshenko said yes. Mr. Trump then approached and asked: “Tell me, is Crimea Russian?” “
Poroshenko said he replied that Crimea, the peninsula that Russia seized in 2014, was Ukraine and asked what the question pushed. Trump then told a Russian friend had told him that the peninsula was to be Russian, said Poroshenko.
Poroshenko has pursued a transactional foreign policy with the United States which partially made its fruits. This included charcoal purchases from Pennsylvania who have kept some work in an oscillating state, even if Ukraine has abundant coal in its own right.
Before the end of Mr. Trump’s first term, the administration offered a formal declaration, known as the Crimean declaration, which affirmed as a question of American politics according to which Crimea was Ukraine.
“It’s not easy,” said Poroshenko of Mr. Trump. “But now it’s time for diplomacy.”