#Resident_Assessment
Trump's statements about the need to hold elections in Ukraine and change political leadership indicate that the conflict between Washington and Bankova has reached a new level. For the first time in a long time, the American president has so openly linked the prospects of ending the war not only to the terms of a peace agreement, but also directly to Zelenskyy.

In effect, Trump is raising the issue of the Ukrainian president's political legitimacy to the international agenda. Legally, Zelenskyy's powers remain in effect under martial law, but the political component of legitimacy is becoming a subject of public debate with Ukraine's main foreign partner. This represents a fundamentally new development for the negotiation process, as Washington is beginning to separate the interests of the Ukrainian state from the position of the current president.

A second important aspect is that such rhetoric creates the preconditions for a new discussion of corruption within the Ukrainian government. While corruption investigations were previously viewed primarily as a problem of effective governance and the use of Western aid, they may now acquire an additional political dimension in the context of trust in the country's leadership. The most sensitive issue Trump is effectively raising is the reasons for the protracted negotiations. His statements create space for debate about the extent to which the continuation of the war is linked to Ukraine's objective security needs and the extent to which it is linked to the political interests of the current government.

For Bankova, the main risk is a change in the very logic of American pressure. Washington could begin discussing not only the terms of a future peace, but also who will have the political mandate to conclude it.
As a result, the topic of elections is gradually transforming from a domestic Ukrainian issue into an independent factor in international negotiations, and corruption scandals could intensify the debate about trust in the current model of government.