Zelensky Fires Back at Russian Claims That He’s Illegitimate After His Mandate Ended in May: ‘Our People Are Free’

Gateway Pundit ^ | 6-8-24 | Paul Serran

[bimboeruption]

With his constitutional Presidential mandate expired, the ‘champion for democracy’, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky is facing the discredit by the Russian enemies.

Recently re-elected in a landslide, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s has been repeatedly clear about how Moscow sees the Ukrainian leader as lacking legitimacy.

For the first time, in a press conference in France alongside President Emmanuel Macron, Zelensky addressed the allegations and dismissed them.

Reuters reported:

President Volodymyr Zelensky said his legitimacy is recognized and determined by the Ukrainian people while criticizing that of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“‘President Zelensky’s legitimacy is recognized by the people of Ukraine. Our people are free. Putin’s legitimacy is recognized only by comrade Putin’, he told a press conference in Paris.”

As we see, the leader who cancelled elections sees himself as more legitimate than the one who held them and won in a landslide. So it goes.

The Presidential elections in Ukraine were supposed to take place this spring, and by late May, Zelensky’s five-year term of office ended.

Zelensky now is ruling by force of Martial law in his country.

“However, martial law introduced following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 bans any wartime election. The constitution says the president serves until a newly elected one takes office.

Putin claimed several times that Zelensky is illegitimate after his five-year term ended this May.”

Putin says that the only Ukrainian authority Russia recognizes as of now is the speaker of Parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk.

But Western leaders – who are after all Ukraine’s sponsors and handlers – have not questioned Zelensky’s legitimacy.

Zelensky’s response comes days after Putin started claiming that presidential power should be shifted to speaker of Ukraine’s parliament Stefanchuk.

It is perhaps not a great sign that Zelensky is now talking of himself in the third person. Kyiv Independent reported him as saying.: “It is the people of Ukraine who elect him, and I am very grateful for their support. Our people are free. This is what we are fighting for.”

The latest presidential election should have been held on March 31, 2024, with Zelensky’s term would ending on May 20.

Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk also dismissed Putin’s claims about Zelensky’s legitimacy; “Volodymyr Zelensky remains and will remain Ukraine’s president until the end of martial law. All this is in accordance with Ukraine’s Constitution and laws.”

[SisterK]

very good
I was wondering if our trolls were paid or volunteer

[Chad C. Mulligan]

Elections ended. ( Yeah, there’s a WAR going on! )

Opposition parties banned. (Only those with direct ties to Moscow. There are dozens still active.)

State control of media. (Huh? Citation?)

Arrest for opposing Z’s war policies. (Again - Huh? Citation?)

Church shut down. (The RUSSIAN Orthodox churches were closed because they were acting to subvert the war effort.)

Moscow and our Democrats have one big thing in common. They loudly accuse their opponents of what they are doing themselves. Who taught whom?

[RAldrich]

True.

[Chad C. Mulligan]

His term expired on 5/20/24 yet he remains in power and Biden and ppl like you support him.

He remains in office because that's how the Ukrainian constitution works. There's a war on, and the Rada votes every couple of months to renew the martial law declaration. How hard is that to understand?

[Chad C. Mulligan]

.....a foreigner pretending to be an American.....

My ancestor John Howland would be ROFLHAO if he could hear that.

[ANKE69]

Yes!
Yes!
Nope!

[Lazamataz]

I really couldn’t care less about Russia or Ukraine and would really like to see a lot less news about both of them.

[circlecity]

A war is no reason to end elections. There are no opposition parties. Any party that opposes Z is declared to be a supporter of Russia and banned.

https://www.npr.org/2022/07/08/1110577439/zelenskyy-has-consolidated-ukraines-tv-outlets-and-dissolved-rival-political-par

Zelensky routinely accuses those who oppose him of “having ties to Russia” as a basis for arresting them. No proof was ever offered that the longtime Ukranian Russian Orthodex church was “subverting the war effort.” Ukraine is a dictatorship.

[JonPreston]

Zelenskyy is a dictator because Biden allows it, and ppl like you support it.

[aspasia]

I perfectly understand you could be just as willing to install martial law and be constitutional at the same time.

[ANKE69]

Have you told this to the Nr.1 propaganda spammer marcusmaximus?

Sure would be nice if the little worm would make a donation to FR for all the trash spam he posts here.

[adorno]

Are you still steamed that your beloved Communist Party candidate only won 4 percent of popular vote?

I have no idea who that candidate is or would be. But, you seem to follow the communist party, and no doubt, it's you who are incensed that your communist party candidate only won such a low percentage. So, let us know who runs the communist party, and who was that candidate that you are so familiar with, and who they plan to run again. I won't be following the communist party's deals, but, YOU can let us in on what you people are up to.

[adorno]

The bottom line is that the Russians aren't going to negotiate with a former president and current comedian.

Oh, but they are.

Even if indirectly, Putin is negotiating to try to keep what territory he has taken by force, and he's doing the negotiations behind the scene.

But worse than that, Putin is negotiating against the Ukrainian people, using force to get them to concede and allow Russia to take over Ukraine. That last type of 'negotiation' is called terrorism, and we in the U.S. know what terrorism looks like first-hand, with terrorists all over the world trying to eliminate U.S. influence wherever it exists. Putin uses his military to terrorize and uses other countries (Iran, Hamas, China, etc) to spread that terrorism.

Zelensky is just the face of the current Ukrainian government, but Putin's target is all of Ukraine, including the people and the land and its resources. Putin feels that Russia is entitled to making Ukraine part of his empire, since they were part of the Russian empire not too long ago. Nobody should ever negotiate with a dictator, and especially one with empire building ideals.

[adorno]

Offering faulty British history as an argument to Biden's support of Zelensky's current dictatorship suggests a Very Low IQ.

Then, stop suggesting such. And, you're right, your IQ is so low that it causes the whole world to wonder if you even have a brain.

[adorno]

garbage arguments like that.

What was the garbage argument, and who made it?

[Sirius Lee]

I really couldn’t care less about Russia or Ukraine and would really like to see a lot less news about both of them.

Relegating the "You're a Zeeper/You're a Putard" threads to the smokey back room would clean up the Forum significantly and improve the FR experience a thousand percent.

[adorno]

Seems Ukraine was never free really. Many countries including our own have set up shop in their country and have been for years.

The U.S. set up shop in Germany and France and Italy and all over the world. We set up shop in Iraq and in Afghanistan. We set up shop where we're needed. Ukraine is a relatively 'new' country after breaking away from the Soviet Union. Even when the U.S. broke away from England, there were growing pains and we needed assistance from various players around the world. Ukraine needs the U.S. and other EU countries, not only for economic reasons, but for defense. Putin took Crimea and Georgia and was looking for more. So, no matter how corrupt the Uke government is or was, should Russia be given carte-blank with trying to take over Ukraine. If it's ok for Russia to take Ukraine, would the problems in Europe be solved? Or, would more problems be created. If corruption means that Ukraine should not be defended, then, we might as well forget about defending the U.S., because, there is more corruption in this country than anywhere else on the planet.

[adorno]

Yes! Yes! Nope!

What are you doing?

I guess I should post a similar answer...

Nonsense.

Nonsense.

Total nonsense.

[AndyJackson]

All of it. Your propoganda machine has burned up some bearings, broken an axel, cracked a wheel and has departed the track, so all it does is make noise and belch smoke. It’s old and tired and designed and built for a different reality than the one we live in.

[wildcard_redneck]

Face it Adorno, Zelensky is a dictator plain and simple. What is even worse Zelensky is a dictator controlled by outside governments which makes him nothing more than a kapo prison warden.