The Parliament in Ukraine refused to extend Volodymyr Zelensky's mandate, as well as to confirm his legitimacy, a number of media outlets in Bulgaria incorrectly write. What is this about? What are the facts? Mina Kirkova checked.
The Parliament in Ukraine refused to extend Volodymyr Zelensky's mandate, as well as to confirm his legitimacy, a number of media outlets in Bulgaria write. Posts on social media cite a vote in the Verkhovna Rada (as the parliament in Ukraine is called), according to which deputies rejected Zelensky as the legitimate head of state.
What are the facts?
The fact is that on February 24, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine rejected a resolution related to holding new elections in the country before the end of the war.
However, it is not about "Zelensky's legitimacy". The resolution is called "Support for democracy in Ukraine in the context of aggression by the Russian Federation".
In the first vote on February 24, it was rejected by 218 votes.
"For" and 54 abstained. There were no votes "Against". The same resolution was put to a second vote the next day, February 25. It was then adopted
with 268 votes "in favor". In the Ukrainian parliament, a majority requires at least 226 votes.
What does the resolution say about Zelensky?
Regarding "Zelensky's legitimacy", the resolution confirms that the Ukrainian president was elected in democratic and transparent elections that were recognized by the international community. It also notes that the Ukrainian president must continue to perform his duties until new elections, which must be held after the lifting of martial law.
The legitimacy of Volodymyr Zelensky as president of Ukraine has not been questioned by the Verkhovna Rada. Elections were not held in 2024, because according to the Ukrainian constitution, this cannot happen during martial law. The current resolution reaffirms that the parliament has given Zelensky and his administration a mandate to continue governing the country until the end of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.
Some posts on social media also claim that even deputies from Zelensky's party, "Servant of the People", voted against the resolution. This is not true - there were no votes against either when the resolution was rejected or adopted, according to a report on the Ukrainian parliament's website. There were no votes against from Zelensky's party, nor were there any "abstains". Out of a total of 235 deputies of this party, 232 were registered that day, of whom 38 did not vote, and 48 were not in the parliamentary hall during the vote.
What else does the resolution say?
The resolution draws attention to the impossibility of holding fair and free elections in Ukraine while the country is in a state of martial law and the war continues to be in its active phase. It also confirms Ukraine's commitment to schedule and hold elections as soon as a truce is reached and a ceasefire is established.
According to the resolution, the current discussions about the legitimacy of Volodymyr Zelensky are instigated by the Kremlin and are a way to distract attention from the fact that it is not Zelensky, but Vladimir Putin, who was not legitimately elected president of Russia. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine also emphasizes that "it is Vladimir Putin who is responsible for the fact that it is currently impossible to organize free, transparent and democratic elections in Ukraine with the invitation of international observers that would be recognized as such by the international community".
What is the context of all this?
Since 2024, when elections were scheduled to be held in Ukraine, Russia has begun to call the Ukrainian president illegitimate and question all the decisions made by him. Including the Russian president categorically refused to hold peace talks that would be signed by Zelensky and his administration, again referring to his alleged "illegitimacy".
As stated in this resolution, elections were not held in Ukraine due to the martial law in which the country is. Part of the sovereign Ukrainian territories are under Russian occupation, which would further complicate the holding of fair elections, as experts believe. In fact, the Kremlin has been calling the authorities in Ukraine illegitimate long before Zelensky's term was extended. This propaganda narrative was part of the motivation for starting the war against Ukraine back in 2022.
What has changed in recent weeks is that US President Donald Trump has joined calls for Ukraine to hold elections as soon as possible, even calling Zelensky a "dictator without elections".
It is also not unprecedented for a country at war to postpone elections until the end of the war. The United Kingdom did not hold elections until 1945 during World War II.
In Finland, during the Winter War and World War II, there were no elections between 1939 and 1945. Similarly, in Italy, during World War I, there were no elections between 1913 and 1919.
Trump made another inaccurate comment about Zelensky - that his approval rating among Ukrainians was just 4%. Although it is difficult to conduct polls during a war, in addition to elections, the latest survey, conducted by the Kyiv Institute of Sociology via telephone conversations in February 2025, shows that Zelensky's approval rating is 57 percent.