DISINFO: Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has arrived in the occupied part of LPR
SUMMARY
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has arrived in the occupied part of LPR. According to sources, the trip was a protocol. It is connected with celebrations dedicated to the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation and the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the German-Soviet War.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the occupied self-proclamed "people's republics" LPR and DPR. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not visit "the occupied part of LPR". On the 8th of May, Zelenskyy inspected the Severodonetsk-Stanytsia Luhanska road - this is a part of Luhansk region which is under Ukrainian control, it is not occupied and remains an integral part of Ukraine. The territories of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts (regions) are internationally recognised parts of Ukraine. The EU has on numerous times mentioned that Ukraine’s borders must be respected. On 27 March 2014, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 68/262 confirming Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Moreover, Russia had also pledged to respect the borders of Crimea in the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 and in the Ukraine-Russia Friendship Treaty of 1997. Read more similar disinfo cases alleging that the Donbas republics are free and independent and that LNR and DNR declared their independence after the coup d’etat in Kyiv.