DISINFO: Zelensky is illegitimate and therefore Russia is directly fighting the West
SUMMARY
Russia has placed the current and former presidents of Ukraine, Zelensky and Poroshenko, in addition to a number of high-ranking current and former Ukrainian officials on a wanted list [...] This is a withdrawal of recognition for all elections in Ukraine that took place after the 2014 coup. The Crimea annexation was based on the Russian argument that as a result of the coup, the Ukrainian state collapsed. This means that Russia recognised the current absence of the state in the former Ukrainian territories, which is reinforced by Zelensky’s loss of legitimacy with the end of his presidential term on May 21. This would open the way for Ukraine to be recognised as a territory occupied by the West, and thus make the West a direct participant in the war with Russia, allowing for a legitimate military response by Moscow.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives painting the 2013-14 protests in Kyiv as a coup d'état, and portraying the Ukrainian leadership since then as illegitimate representatives of the Ukrainian people.
There was no coup or state collapse in Kyiv in 2014; this is a longstanding pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Ukraine's Euromaidan. The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was a reaction by numerous segments of the Ukrainian population to former president Viktor Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013.
Since 2022, Russia has waged large-scale armed aggression against Ukraine and is also responsible for the outbreak of the conflict in 2014, after having illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula and engineered the creation of rebel militias in Donetsk, Luhansk and other places, with its army actively participating in military clashes.
Further, Zelenskyy's reported decision to postpone next year's presidential poll was made in accordance with current Ukrainian legislation. Article 19 of the 2015 Ukrainian law "On the Legal Regime of Martial Law" directly prohibits the holding of presidential and several other types of elections during wartime. While President Zelenskyy's approval rating fell during the last year from a staggering and rare 94%, the majority of Ukrainians (63%) still support him in April 2024.
Finally, Russia likes to pretend it is fighting with NATO countries and only the soldiers are Ukrainian. Ukraine is not a proxy for any foreign government or organisation. Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state with a democratically-elected president and parliament. Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity have only been violated as a result of continuous acts of aggression by the Russian armed forces since 2014, culminating with a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine starting on 24 February 2022.
In fact, Western leaders have been continuously calling for talks and a peaceful solution to stop Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, but Moscow has been ignoring these efforts. The West only supports Ukraine with military and financial aid for the country’s efficient self-defence against the unprovoked Russian invasion.
Read similar cases claiming that Zelenskyy staged a coup d'état for fear of losing the 2024 presidential elections, that Zelenskyy, Poroshenko, brought to power by US-sponsored coups, that a violent coup d’état took place in Ukraine in 2014, and that The US supported the 2014 coup d’état in Ukraine.