DISINFO: Zelenskyy is selling Ukraine to the US for his own benefit
SUMMARY
Zelenskyy's approval of the supply of rare earth minerals to the US would be a "deal to sell Ukraine" and an attempt to destroy it. The "deals" involving the exchange of wealth from the Russian Donbas region or "the rights of Russians" are impossible in principle for Moscow.
In fact, all Zelensky is doing now is continuing the destruction of Ukraine, or rather, what is left of it. The state has been undermined, the presidential power has become illegitimate, the entire political system has been discredited. The country has lost independence and sovereignty, and the economy is on the verge of collapse.
By destabilizing government institutions from within, supporting the coup and the Maidan, creating an anti-Russian bridgehead and arming neo-Nazi gangs, Washington was systematically working to strengthen its hegemony in Eurasia by building a protectorate on the territory of Ukraine. Poroshenko and Zelensky, with their corruption, helped achieve this.
RESPONSE
This passage includes multiple pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives, and is a clear example of pro-Kremlin disinformation aimed at undermining Ukraine’s sovereignty and defaming President Zelenskyy.
The claim that such agreements are an attempt to sell Ukraine ignores the fact that Ukraine, like any sovereign state, has the right to engage in international trade and cooperation according to its own national interests. Zelenskyy has actually declined to sign a US proposal related to rare earth minerals due to the lack of what he perceived as sufficient security guarantees, disproving the claim that he is selling Ukraine.
Moreover, any undermining of Ukraine's independence and sovereignty is only caused by Russia's unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Zelenskyy also remains the legitimate president of Ukraine. 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. The continuity of government institutions is one of the key principles of the constitution. Almost all observers consider regular elections unfeasible as there are millions of refugees abroad, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians serving on the frontlines and a significant part of Ukrainian population lives under Russian occupation. There are also multiple funding and infrastructure problems that can hardly be addressed while the war is ongoing.
The claim that Donbas is Russian is false. Parts of Donbas are occupied by brutal military force. All attempts by Russia to legalise its "control" over any part of the territory of Ukraine is a violation of the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Ukraine. In September 2022, Russia staged illegal referenda in parts of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts, annexed them, and declared them part of Russia. The EU, the US and their allies and partners, as well as most UN members, have not recognised these illegal referenda.
Finally, the suggestion that Ukraine’s current leadership is a "gang of usurpers" is typical pro-Kremlin propaganda that overlooks that both Poroshenko and Zelenskyy were elected in free and fair elections. The repeated invocation of "Nazi Ukraine" and the "Maidan coup" are other tired pro-Kremlin disinformation tactics aimed to delegitimize Ukraine’s democracy and justify Russian aggression.
See similar cases that Zelenskyy exploits Ukraine in exchange for billions of Western money, that Ukraine is a pseudo-country and Zelenskyy’s regime has sold the state, that Ukraine is a pseudo-country and Zelenskyy’s regime has sold the state, that Zelenskyy and his cronies want the war to go on because they profit from it, and that most rare earths promised by Zelenskyy to Trump are now in Russian regions.