Would a new president end Russia’s war on Ukraine?
The constitutional argument is the sharpest part of this. Ukraine's own law bars holding elections during martial law, so any push for a quick vote runs straight into the country's founding rules. Ukrainians chose that framework for exactly this kind of crisis, so it carries real weight.
I think the deeper question is whether a new U.S. president could actually move the needle on the ground. Russia's aims have not changed with who sits in the Oval Office, and Moscow has shown no interest in a settlement that leaves Ukraine intact. If the pressure comes only from Washington, it may shift the conversation without shifting the war.
What I would want to know next is what leverage any president actually has beyond military aid. Sanctions have bite, but they have not bent Putin so far. And if elections were somehow forced through, the legitimacy of the government that followed would be shaky, which serves nobody except the side that wants Ukraine divided.
That is why I land with the professor on the legal point, even if I keep some doubt about whether any president, new or old, can deliver the peace people hope for.