MOSCOW, November 12. /TASS/. Kiev plans to hold presidential elections in Ukraine in the fall of 2025, when the authorities will still have the opportunity to falsify the results, the country's former Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov said.

"These (rumors about holding elections in 2025 - TASS) are, in fact, certain leaks from Zelensky's entourage. So far he has all the possibilities to falsify the election results. <...> That is why they started preparing for these elections already in August, creating certain support groups. They expect to hold these elections sometime in the fall [of 2025]," he said on Rossiya-24 TV.

Azarov added that this is how Zelensky expects to "stay in power despite [President-elect Donald] Trump." However, according to the politician, the American leader has the power not to allow this possibility. "The elections will be meaningless if the conditions are not changed. And Trump must talk about it. He is capable of doing it. If he does, there will be no Zelensky," he said.

According to the politician, in the current situation, when opposition parties are banned in Ukraine, when the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is persecuted, when several politicians and public figures who oppose the current government are in prison, fair elections are impossible.

Earlier, the press bureau of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) reported that the US State Department is considering holding elections in Ukraine to remove the "arrogant" Vladimir Zelensky from power.

Zelensky’s powers officially expired after May 20, 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed out that Ukraine is now silencing the May 2014 decision of its very own Constitutional Court that the presidential term cannot be extended. According to the Russian leader, this means that Zelensky’s term "expired along with his legitimacy, which cannot be restored by any tricks."