Russia seeks to delegitimize Ukrainian government to influence negotiations, elections — diplomat

He stated this in an interview with Antin Borkovskyi, host of the Studio West program on Espreso TV.

“A key component of Russia’s informational attack is what we now see on social media, where phrases like ‘a well-known state,’ ‘a well-known conflict in Eastern Europe,’ and ‘a well-known illegitimate person’ are being used. This is an attempt to delegitimize Ukraine and its government in order to influence both the negotiation process and the electoral process before or during those negotiations. Given the current tension regarding how the administration of Donald Trump will behave, and under the pressure of political confrontation, the hybrid war strategy developed by the Russian General Staff is a brilliant tool for tearing Ukraine apart from both the outside and within,” Bezsmertnyi commented.

According to him, in response to Russia’s disinformation efforts in global media, it is essential to explain that these narratives are false and aimed at undermining Ukraine’s legitimacy as a state.

“This includes the ideas of [Sergei] Naryshkin (head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service) and the position of [Nikolai] Patrushev (Putin’s aide) on matters related to international conferences, as all of this will be pushed into the informational space. It also includes narratives about the alleged illegitimacy of Ukraine’s current leaders in the negotiation process and claims that ‘anything they sign will be illegitimate.’ This propaganda will be fed to both weak societies and Washington, where intellectual capacity has clearly declined to the point that they struggle to grasp these issues. This is evident in statements coming from Washington regarding their understanding of events in Ukraine since 2014,” the politician said.

The diplomat gave an example involving the statements of the new U.S. Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who referred to returning to events of 2012—showing that there is still a lack of chronological understanding, whether it’s 2012, 2014, or 2022.

“It will take some time for the relevant services to analyze these developments and provide a logical understanding of the process that unfolded in Ukraine. At least it is a good sign that they now understand it didn’t all start in 2022. But it is evident that this disinformation campaign, this attack, will now intensify. And it is crucial to explain this to society, our partners, and our allies,” Bezsmertnyi concluded.

• On Tuesday, January 7, U.S. president-elect Donald Trump said that Russian leader Vladimir Putin seeks to meet with him.
• Newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump stated that preparations are underway for his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
• Later, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that he was ready to meet with Trump without preconditions, and Putin later announced that Moscow was open to dialogue with the US administration on the war in Ukraine.