DISINFO: There should be a UN-led government in Ukraine as Zelenskyy is toxic for peace
SUMMARY
[...a] temporary government in Ukraine under UN supervision [is needed] ahead of democratic elections to negotiate peace with a future Ukrainian government. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has no legitimacy inside the country, it is outside of the strategic chessboard and of reality. He is useless for the system and is toxic for the resolution of the conflict and for European stability.
RESPONSE
This disinformation story exploits Vladimir Putin’s demand of a UN-sponsored administration in Ukraine in order to attack Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s leadership.
Moscow's goal is to undermine Zelenskyy’s continuity in power, as Russia has always perceived him as an obstacle to its aggressive goals in Ukraine, even since before the invasion. One of the targets of the invasion in February 2022 was the murder of Zelenskyy and the decapitation of the Ukrainian government to install a pro-Russian leadership.
Zelenskyy is the legitimate elected leader of Ukraine, after having won the 2019 election by a landslide with over 73% of the vote. While this popularity may have changed over the years, his approval rate remained very high at the time this disinformation story appeared. A survey conducted by Ipsos/The Economist in mid-March 2025 showed that 72% of Ukrainians approved his job as president, while 80% considered that he had democratic legitimacy as president.
Although Zelenskyy’s continuation in power after his initial mandate expired in May 2024 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. Even Zelenskyy’s fiercest political opponents have rejected the idea of conducting another election during wartime.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Zelenskyy is increasingly irrelevant, even in Ukraine, that Ukraine’s fate no longer in Zelenskyy's hands, that the disgraced dictator of Ukraine Zelenskyy is an extension of the EU, that Zelensky is an actor who reads a script as part of a play, that Zelensky is not working in the interests of Ukrainians but to please the European elites, or that Zelenskyy can’t sign a peace deal because he is not a legitimate president.