Denying Ukrainian statehood is one of the main pillars of pro-Kremlin media manipulation and disinformation campaigns, which aim to undermine the Ukrainian government, sow division inside Ukraine, and cut off Western allies’ support for Ukraine. The Kremlin invests a lot in disinformation efforts to achieve these goals.
Some of the allegations, like the ones about the “Maidan coup” in Kyiv and “Nazis” in the Ukrainian government, are blatantly ludicrous, but others are a little more nuanced and address more serious issues in Ukrainian politics, such as corruption. Even in these situations, however, the Kremlin purposefully exaggerates in order to give the impression of urgency or gravity, EUvsDisinfo has found.
The last couple of months, just before the talks with the US on Ukraine, the central claim in pro-Kremlin narratives criticizing Ukrainian statehood is the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s purported “illegitimacy.”
Between January 26 and February 2, 2025, the Russian state-owned RIA Novosti website, which is sanctioned in the EU, alone featured at least 25 stories labeled as “illegitimate” in a single week. All of these amounted to the same assertion: Zelenskyy “declared himself a dictator.” Zelenskyy “usurped power in Ukraine” and “spat” on democratic standards, according to the Kremlin-linked sites.
By focusing on Zelenskyy’s alleged “illegitimacy,” the Kremlin obscures the fact that elections and referendums are legally impossible in Ukraine during times of war, as stipulated in the Ukrainian Constitution.
Additionally, Russia omits the fact of the destroyed voting infrastructure in Ukraine, the impossibility of holding elections in the Russian-occupied territories, the challenges of organizing voting for the millions of Ukrainians who fled to other countries, the inability to vote for Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines, the inability to provide security in the event of a missile or other Russian attack on election day, and many other issues.
Based on their own narratives regarding the “illegitimacy” of the Ukrainian president, Russian propaganda media are quick to reach yet another incorrect conclusion. This is the absurd assertion that Ukraine rejects peace talks with Russia “in order to maintain Zelenskyy’s power.” The Kremlin is attempting to shift the blame for Russia’s war against Ukraine on Ukraine in this way.
“Zelenskyy and Ukraine are Western puppets” is another Russian propaganda fake. The Kremlin started to unequivocally and methodically deny Ukraine’s existence as an independent state after Ukraine recommitted to the path of Euro-Atlantic integration following the Euromaidan uprising in 2013–2014.
The Kremlin continues to promote the notion that Ukraine is controlled by the West despite the fact that its disinformation narratives of the “Western color revolution” have been repeatedly refuted.
The claims that the “bloodthirsty NATO” aims to portray Ukraine as the adversary, under the control of NATO and “the West,” alternate with narratives portraying Ukraine as a “Western puppet” and “bargaining chip of the West.”
In addition to engaging in the victim/aggressor role reversal once more, the Kremlin also spreads the myth of “external control of Ukraine” to give the impression that Russia is actually up against NATO’s aggression, which has taken control of Ukraine.
The Kremlin disinformation campaigns also claim that “in Ukraine Nazis are in power.” The Russian propaganda machine spreads fakes that the Ukrainian people are anticipating their liberation from the Nazi-ruled “Kyiv regime.”
In the Russian propaganda apparatus, World War II and the 20th-century struggle against Nazism hold a special position. Russia strives to claim ownership over the role of those who fought against fascism. Moscow tries to downplay the enormous destruction inflicted upon Ukraine during World War II and the role that Ukraine and Ukrainians played in defeating Nazi Germany. It is widely acknowledged that between 5 and 7 million Ukrainians died. However, the Kremlin is currently promoting the fake about Nazis in order to garner ongoing domestic support for the prolonged war in Ukraine, which is approaching its third year.
Russia has been propagating the false narrative that the Nazis took control of Ukraine in 2014. The pro-Kremlin “Nazi scare” continued to ramp up despite the fact that a person of Jewish descent was elected president of Ukraine in 2019 and that no far-right political organization was elected to parliament. The fact that Nazi and fascist ideas and symbols are illegal in Ukraine did not help either. Anyone who attempted to protect Ukraine against Russian invaders is still referred to as a “Nazi” by the Kremlin.
The Kremlin’s rhetoric has changed in the past year as Russia has begun demonizing Ukraine with a new slogan. These days, Russian media sources are increasingly calling the state and its military and political officials “terrorists.”
Researchers concluded that Russian disinformation campaigns are long-term oriented. Pro-Kremlin disinformation and media manipulation get more complex as Russia’s war against Ukraine drags on. The Kremlin employs disinformation to incite domestic instability in Ukraine and to sever Ukraine’s relations with its allies after failing to break the armed resistance of the Ukrainian people.
Any Ukrainian government that does not align with the Kremlin will be labeled “illegitimate” by Russia. After all, the Kremlin can always claim that any Ukrainian president elected after 2014 was brought to office by a “coup d’état” and a “color revolution.”
