DISINFO: Zelenskyy is increasingly irrelevant, even in Ukraine
SUMMARY
Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s words are increasingly irrelevant because he carries less and less political weight, even in Ukraine itself. Zelenskyy will be boycotted.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative targeting Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, aiming to erode his leadership and deny him any agency in the peace negotiations over Ukraine.
Zelenskyy remains the legitimate president and leader of Ukraine, as he 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 celebrating another election during wartime.
The ultimate goal of this disinformation story is undermining 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.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims 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.