DISINFO: Zelensky, who is head of a quasi-failed state, lacks the legal authority to sign peace agreements

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives targeting Ukraine’s leadership, claiming that president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not legitimate and attacking Ukraine’s sovereignty. Both claims were made in the context of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy is the legitimate president of Ukraine. Although Zelenskyy’s continuation in power after his initial mandate expired in May 2024 (not in May 2023 as the article falsely claims) generated some domestic controversy, Ukraine’s constitution is straightforward: no elections can be held during wartime and the President of Ukraine exercises his powers until the assumption of office by the newly-elected President. The continuity of government institutions is one of the key principles of the constitution. Almost all observers consider regular elections unfeasible as there are millions of refugees abroad, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians serving on the frontline and a significant part of the Ukrainian population lives under Russian occupation. There are also multiple funding and infrastructure problems that can hardly be addressed while the war is ongoing. See our article Kremlin disinformation attacking the ‘legitimacy’ of Ukrainian authorities.

Ukraine has consistently sought a just peace, not surrender. Zelenskyy has repeatedly stated that Ukraine is open to negotiations, but only on terms that respect its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The idea that he is deliberately blocking peace ignores the fact that Russia has set conditions that Ukraine cannot accept because they undermine its independence, such as recognising occupied Ukrainian territories as Russian. It is Russia, not Ukraine, which started and escalated the war. The claim that Zelenskyy is preventing peace shifts the blame away from Russia, which is the aggressor. As we explore in our article, The Old Deceiver, this is entirely consistent with Moscow’s three-year-long strategy of attempting to claim ownership over the peace narrative while relentlessly pursuing war.

Despite Russia’s systematic destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure and constant attacks, Ukraine remains a fully functional country with a working government. Claims about Ukraine’s “state collapse” are baseless, aiming to portray it as a failed state as part of a core of disinformation narratives and myths justifying Russia’s aggression against its neighbour.

Read similar cases claimimg that Ukraine is collapsing and losing its state attributes, that Zelensky sabotages peace dialogue with Russia as did in Istanbul in 2022, that Zelenskyy is no more the legitimate leader of Ukraine and his decisions are illegal, that Ukraine is a pseudo-country and Zelenskyy’s regime has sold the state, that Ukraine as a state does not exist, or that Russia won’t talk to Ukraine because it is not a sovereign state.