DISINFO: Ukraine is a pseudo-country and Zelenskyy’s regime has sold the state
SUMMARY
Ukraine has become a pseudo-country without its own will. Zelenskyy’s regime has sold the state and Ukraine has been turned into a test field for Western companies.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives attacking Ukraine’s statehood, sovereignty and leadership. By arguing that Ukraine is not a real and full state independent from Russia, these narratives aim to justify Russia’s invasion of its neighbour.
Ukraine is a sovereign nation with a democratically elected president and parliament. Its independence and territorial integrity is internationally recognised by the whole world, including Russia in 1991.
Claims about the Ukrainian state being sold by Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government are unsubstantiated, and are an attempt to promote another recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about secret/global elites, and to undermine international aid for Ukraine by portraying its leaders as unworthy of support.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Russia won’t talk to Ukraine because it is not a sovereign state, that Ukraine is not an autonomous state, but a convenient geopolitical tool for the US, that Ukraine as a state does not exist, that Ukraine today is an artificial state, a satellite of the US, or that Ukraine and Kosovo are not independent in decision-making.