According to reports, four senior members of the Trump administration met with a few Ukrainian opposition leaders to discuss plans to force President Volodymyr Zelensky from office.

The senior Trump allies held talks with Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, a remorselessly ambitious former prime minister, and senior members of the party of Petro Poroshenko, Zelenskyy’s immediate predecessor as president, according to three Ukrainian parliamentarians and a U.S. Republican foreign policy expert.

The discussions centered on whether Ukraine could hold quick presidential elections. These are being delayed in line with the country’s constitution because Ukraine remains under martial law. Critics of holding elections say they could be chaotic and play into Russia’s hands, with so many potential voters serving on the front lines or living abroad as refugees.

While no names are named, recent statements suggest that Trump's Ukraine point man, retired General Keith Kellogg, was one of the participants. As a four-man team led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with the Russians in Riyadh in February, the preponderance of the evidence would indicate the same four, making it a solid bet that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and special envoy Steve Witkoff were involved.

There is no reason to doubt this report as Trump has overtly demonstrated that he is willing to end the war on Russia's terms to reset, to use the Obama era expression, US-Russia relations; see Russia Offers to Help Trump Negotiate With Iran on Nuclear Weapons and Regional Security – RedState. Trump has said that Zelensky "won't be around very long" if a peace deal is not made. The demand that Zelensky rubber-stamp a peace plan for the sake of a peace plan or face removal is standard fare within the Administration and its allies.

Either Zelenskyy “needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude or someone else needs to lead the country to do that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday. Two days after the Ukrainian president was publicly berated by President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, and asked to leave the White House without signing an important deal, Johnson said it was “up to the Ukrainians to figure that out.”

National security adviser Mike Waltz said Washington needed “a leader that can deal with us, eventually deal with the Russians, and end this war.” He told CNN that “if it becomes apparent that President Zelenskyy’s either personal motivations or political motivations are divergent from ending the fighting in this country, then I think we have a real issue.”

Meanwhile Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he wasn’t sure if the U.S. “can ever do business with Zelenskyy again.” He said that Ukraine’s leader “either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with, or he needs to change.”

Even though Trump has called Zelensky a dictator and demanded elections without seeming to care that Russia occupies 20% of Ukraine and those people would be unable to vote, Tulsi Gabbard has even claimed that Zelensky canceled elections when Ukraine's constitution forbids elections during wartime. The demand also ignores that, unlike Trump's fatuous claim that Zelensky has a 4% approval rating, Zelensky is the most popular national politician in Ukraine (63%, up seven points since May), and half the country supports the continuation of the war. The most likely replacement for Zelensky would be Ukraine's ambassador in London, retired General Valery Zaluzhny, who is 20 points less popular than the man Trump wants replaced.

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