# Ukraine opposition leaders confirm talks with US but deny plotting to oust Zelenskyy

Petro Poroshenko and Yulia Tymoshenko denied they were part of a reported White House plot to remove Ukraine leader from power

**Luke Harding**  
Thu 6 Mar 2025 12.26 EST  
Last modified on Thu 6 Mar 2025 13.20 EST

Ukraine’s opposition leaders have confirmed they have held discussions with members of Donald Trump’s entourage, but denied on Thursday they were part of a reported White House plot to remove  from power.

The former president Petro Poroshenko said he had held talks with US representatives but added that he opposed Trump’s demands for wartime elections. Poroshenko, , said a poll should only be held once martial law ends.

The  that the secret discussions took place as part of an attempt by the White House to remove Zelenskyy from his post. Four senior members of Trump’s team were involved, it said, adding they believed Ukraine’s president would lose a vote.

Under Ukraine’s constitution elections are suspended while martial law is in force. Last month, however, Donald Trump echoed Kremlin disinformation by  who had done “a terrible job” and had a “4% poll rating”.

Other administration officials including Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence, have wrongly claimed Kyiv has cancelled elections. Last week, meanwhile, Trump and the US vice-president, JD Vance, berated Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, .

On Thursday, Trump’s ally Elon Musk tweeted: “Ukraine needs to hold an election. Zelensky would lose by a landslide.”

But Zelenskyy . Trump’s recent attacks on him have boosted his ratings, which are at 44 % according to the British pollster Survation this week. Poroshenko, an oligarch who was elected in 2014, receives 10% support, with Tymoshenko on 5.4%.

The second most popular potential candidate is Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, who trails Zelenskyy by more than 20 points. A former head of Ukraine’s armed forces, .

Speaking at Chatham House, he said: “We see that it’s not just the axis of evil and  trying to revise the world order. The US is finally destroying this order.” Zaluzhnyi warned that Nato would soon “stop existing”, as the US tore up its postwar commitment to European security.

Commentators were unimpressed with the White House’s apparent behind-the-scenes attempts to pick favourites in Ukraine’s domestic politics. Tymoshenko  in January, attending a prayer event with leading Republicans.

“This is a dead horse effort and shows how little the team who met either Ukrainian understands the reality in Ukraine,” Tymofiy Mylovanov, the president of the Kyiv school of economics, .



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