MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. The US may exert pressure on Vladimir Zelensky to conduct elections in the country, former Russian Prime Minister Sergey Stepashin told TASS in an interview.

When asked about the possibility of re-elections in Ukraine under the pressure from the United States, Stepashin said: "Yes! What can he do? He is powerless. If he is told to go to Canada, for example, he'll go to Canada."

He said that Zelensky's potential contender in the elections could be Ukrainian ambassador to the UK Valery Zaluzhny.

"I know that Zaluzhny is quite popular in Ukraine today," he added.

Stepashin emphasized that a candidate for the presidency should be someone who thinks not about war, but about peace.

The presidential election was supposed to be held in Ukraine in March 2024. In early February of the same year, Zelensky removed Zaluzhny, who was then commander-in-chief. Later, Zaluzhny was appointed ambassador to the UK and almost entirely vanished from public attention for several months. The Ukrainian authorities attributed the absence of elections to the imposition of martial law. Zelensky's presidential term officially lapsed on May 20, 2024.