From: New Voice of Ukraine by Alex Stezhensky
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha pushed back against remarks by Russia’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrov, who claimed that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was “illegitimate.”
“Nothing is more absurd than a lecture on legitimacy from someone who has sat in his chair for 21 years, serving someone who has been ruling for more than 25 years,” Sybiha wrote on X. “He has no legitimacy to talk about legitimacy.”
Sybiha said such baseless claims showed that Russia was rejecting peace efforts.
Lavrov, in an interview with NBC Newspublished Aug. 24, said Russian dictator Vladimir Putin was supposedly ready to talk to Zelenskyy “when a meeting agenda is prepared.” At the same time, he hinted that Putin would refuse to sign a peace deal because of Zelenskyy’s alleged “illegitimacy.”
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) noted that Lavrov used the English-language interview with NBC News to repeat the Kremlin’s clear rejection of U.S.-backed peace initiatives for Ukraine. ISW said Lavrov’s attempts to question Zelenskyy’s legitimacy should be viewed as an effort to justify Moscow’s refusal to join peace talks.
On Feb. 25, Ukraine’s parliament approved a resolution in support of democracy that underscored the impossibility of holding elections while the war continues.
In March, Central Election Commission chief Oleh Didenko said Ukrainian law sets clear timelines for voting once martial law is lifted: parliamentary elections within 60 days and presidential elections within 90.
Ukraine is prepared to hold elections, but only under safe conditions, Zelenskyy said during his Aug. 18 meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House. He added that “elections cannot be held during war.”
Voice of Ukraine 