For President Volodymyr Zelensky, one of the few consolations of being a wartime leader has been not having to worry about the campaign trail. The Ukrainian constitution declares that elections are forbidden while the country is under martial law, on the basis that free and fair ballots are hard to hold while fighting rages.

Donald Trump, however, begs to differ. Having already irked Kyiv by holding direct talks with Moscow on ending the war and ruling out Nato membership for Ukraine, he has now added to Zelensky’s woes by demanding elections before any final peace deal.

“If Ukraine wants a seat at the table, wouldn’t the people have to say it has been a long time since they had an election?” the US president said on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he went a step further still, branding the Ukrainian leader a “dictator” for failing to hold a vote since Russia launched its bloody, full-scale invasion almost three years ago.

His comments come despite surveys indicating that most Ukrainians do not want any vote until the war is over. Nearly a third of the country’s population are either living abroad as refugees or internally displaced, while at any given time, hundreds of thousands are serving on the frontlines. Approximately a fifth of the country also remains under Kremlin occupation.