DISINFO: Ukrainian leaders cannot be negotiated with because they are illegitimate criminals and terrorists
SUMMARY
All the authorities in Ukraine after the February 2014 coup are illegal, despite all the formal elections taking place there. This also relates to the position on the peace negotiations being discussed. Who should be negotiated with? With criminals and terrorists? It can also become the subject of negotiations between the parties that actually make decisions. For the United States, Zelensky does not represent any personal value, he is a product of public relations, and he played his role. If they needed to replace him, they would sacrifice him without hesitation. These are not personalities but functions.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives painting the 2013-14 protests in Kyiv as a coup d'état, and portraying the Ukrainian leadership as illegitimate representatives of the Ukrainian people.
There was no coup or violent seizure of power 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 2014, 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.
No country other than Russia and the states that support it treat Ukrainian leaders as terrorists or criminals, nor have they added them to wanted or sanctions lists. On the other hand, more than 45 countries list more than 10,000 Russian individuals on a sanctions list for their participation in/support of war crimes and violations of international law.
Finally, no country has the power of choosing the Ukrainian president. Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state with a democratically elected president and parliament. The country is not controlled by the US, EU or any other foreign organisation or government. Both the EU and the US respect Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
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