MOSCOW, May 21. /TASS/. Moscow’s position concerning Vladimir Zelensky’s legitimacy as Ukrainian president after May 20 has already been articulated by Russian President Vladimir Putin and remains the same, Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.
"We insist on the position that was laid bare by the Russian president. He voiced it at a news conference in China. Everyone heard it and he laid everything out," Peskov said, commenting on statements by UN representatives that they continue to view Zelensky as Ukrainian head of state.
The issue of the legitimacy of the current authorities in the absence of parliamentary and presidential elections, which cannot be held amid martial law, is the focus of heated debates in Ukraine. Thus, Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s parliament) member Alexander Dubinsky insists that Zelensky’s term as president expired on May 21 and there is no legal way to extend it. The country’s former ambassador to the United Kingdom, Vadim Pristaiko, has admitted that Kiev’s Western partners are concerned over the expiration of Zelensky’s term as president.
Meanwhile, according to the Russian President Vladimir Putin, it is up to Ukraine to resolve the problem of Zelensky’s legitimacy both politically and legally. Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev told TASS that in a bid to hold onto power, Zelensky is violating the laws of his own country.