President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would like to hold elections within a year, but he sees many obstacles to this.

As the president told Natalya Moseychuk in an interview, he held a meeting in Kyiv with U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, who said that elections in Ukraine should be held in 2024.

"My answer is very simple. And Lindsey was very pleased with it. If our parliamentarian is ready, then why not? As then we need changes to the legislation, to the electoral code. Do it quickly. One. If, as I told him, you are ready give me 5 billion, because I am not a person who deals with paving stones, and I can't just take 5 billion from the budget, but it seems to me that this is the amount needed to hold elections in normal times. In the military, I don't know what that amount is. Therefore, I told him if the United States, together with Europe, gives us financial support and I don't ask for anything, I won't hold elections on credit, I won't take money from weapons and give it to the elections either. And this is provided for by law " Zelenskyy said.

"I told him: if the United States and Europe give us financial support... I'm sorry, I will not hold elections on credit, I will not take money from weapons and give it to elections either. But if you give me this financial support, if the parliamentarians realize that we need to do this, then let's quickly change the legislation and, most importantly, let's take risks together. Observers should be in the trenches. I told him: observers must be sent to the frontline so that the elections are legitimate for us and for the whole world. And this is absolutely fair," he said.

In turn, according to the head of state, Lindsey said "such remarks are very adequate and fair."

As Zelenskyy noted, he was against holding elections due to the lack of the necessary infrastructure for voting for people who left Ukraine in connection with the war and for the military at the front.

According to the president, he would not want to fantasize now about the fact that "we would live without elections for three, five, seven years."

"I don't want the authorities to have the idea that they are holding on to something. I'm not holding on to anything, I would like to hold elections. Honestly, I would like to do this within a year," the president said.

According to the presidential press service, in his interview he also said elections in Ukraine under martial law are possible only if it is possible to exercise the right to vote for all citizens, including military personnel and internally displaced persons abroad, and with funding and presence foreign observers at polling stations on the frontline.

"We need every vote. We cannot say for ourselves that this is very democratically done. We need a legitimate choice. For this choice to be made by society. So that this does not divide our people. So that the military can vote. They are defending this democracy today and not giving them this opportunity because of the war is dishonest," the head of state said.