Zelenskyy ‘ready for elections’ after Trump questions Ukrainian democracy | First Thing

Ukraine’s president to look at holding wartime vote. Plus, the hidden life of Matthew Perry

Good morning.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is ready to hold a wartime election within the next three months, if Ukraine’s parliament and foreign allies will allow it, after Donald Trump accused him of clinging on to power.

Why hasn’t there been an election? Zelenskyy’s five-year term expired in May last year, but the Ukrainian constitution prohibits elections during wartime, and even his political opponents have said repeatedly that the security and political considerations do not allow for holding a vote while the war continued.

What else did he talk about? There were familiar rally staples such as a mocking impression of Joe Biden, as well as a repeat of a racist falsehood about the Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, a Muslim woman born in Somalia: “We ought to get her the hell out! She married her brother … Therefore she’s here illegally.” The crowd chanted: “Send her back!” Omar has called the claims about her brother “ridiculous”.

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Source: www.theguardian.com

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