We have been reporting here in TGP for quite a while on the inevitable consequences of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cancelling elections and extending his rule via martial law.
Last November, Zelensky canceled elections planned for March or April, saying it would be ‘utterly irresponsible’ to hold elections during the war.
After his constitutional mandate expired on May 21, as was widely expected, the Russian side immediately started not recognizing him anymore as head of state.
Sputnik reported:
“President Zelensky’s legitimacy has expired, and Russia will proceed from this fact, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
‘Of course, we are aware that the legitimacy of the current head of state [of Ukraine] has ended’, Putin said at a press conference in Minsk on Friday after talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Putin recommended anyone looking for answers regarding Zelensky’s legal status to look to the Ukrainian Constitution – which does not authorize the artificial extension of his presidential term under the pretext of martial law.”
Belarusian Lukashenko echoed Putin’s assessment, hinting that the real deciders are in Washington, not Kiev.
Meanwhile, “A defiant Zelensky has rejected questions on his legitimacy from his critics in Ukraine, and from Kiev’s Western ‘partners’. ‘My five-year term is not over yet. It is continuing due to martial law,’ Zelensky told Reuters on Tuesday.”
Kiev will consider anyone who doubts Zelensky’s legitimacy ‘enemies of Ukraine’.
Putin emphasized that Russia remains ready to resume peace negotiations with Ukraine but accounting for the current realities on the ground – but NOT with an illegitimate President.
“If and when such negotiations resume, ‘we must be completely confident that we are dealing with legitimate authorities. This question must be answered in Ukraine itself. First of all, I believe, from the position of the parliament, the Constitutional Court, some other government bodies’, Putin said.”
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