Zelensky lacks legitimacy to sign any deal – Putin

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky can participate in possible talks with Moscow if he wishes to, but he lacks the legitimacy to actually sign a peace deal, Russian President Vladimir Putin told journalist Pavel Zarubin on Tuesday.

Negotiating with the de-facto Ukrainian leadership will not have any legal meaning, given that Kiev explicitly banned itself from engaging in talks with Moscow, according to Putin.

In 2022, Zelensky, whose presidential term officially ended in May 2024, issued a decree prohibiting negotiations with Russia, and President Vladimir Putin specifically, a measure that remains in effect. Last week, Zelensky claimed the ban applies to all Ukrainian officials except himself, although the original decree did not specify a list of entities barred from talking to Russia, stating only that such negotiations were “impossible.”

“If we start negotiations now, they will be illegitimate… Because when the current head of the regime, that’s the only way to call [Zelensky] today, signed this decree, he was a somewhat legitimate president. But now he can’t cancel it, because he is illegitimate. That’s the trick, the catch, the trap,” Putin explained.