"Blow up the legitimacy of Zelensky": The Kremlin prepares a misinformation attack - Bloomberg

According to the newspaper, this week the Ukrainian president stated that the intelligence of the countries of the Great Seven (G7) received documents confirming the plan of Moscow. Kiev is preparing for a number of misinformation attacks of the Russian Federation against President Vladimir Zelensky. The purpose of the Kremlin is to use doubts about the authority of the Ukrainian President to destabilize public trust. In particular, among the Ukrainian military.

About it writes the American edition Bloomberg with reference to anonymous sources. The authors of the material remind that such a threat has arisen when the popularity of Zelensky begins to fall, the full -scale war continues for the third year, and Russian troops began an active offensive in the East of the country.

According to journalists, in Kiev they are concerned that the Russian offensive can gain momentum by the summer of 2024, if the allies do not increase the volume of supplies of ammunition, as reserves will be exhausted. The main efforts of the Kremlin directs the attempt to undermine the democratic legitimacy of Zelensky in the eyes of society, because his 5-year term of his stay in the post of President of Ukraine is coming to an end, and new elections will not be held because of war.

Zelensky clearly made it clear that he was expecting such provocations from Moscow. The newspaper reminds that this week the Ukrainian president has stated that the intelligence of the Great Seven countries (G7) has received documents confirming the Kremlin's plan. "It is not the opinion of Western partners or perhaps someone inside Ukraine, but the narrative and program of the Russian Federation," Zelensky said.

In turn The fact that Zelensky has overthrown his presidential since May (Vladimir Zelensky took the oath as the Head of State on May 20, 2019 - Ed. Panic moods, despair, artificially oppose civilians and military, quarrel with our allies, distribute in society all kinds of "conspiracy theories", - reported in the SBU. According to Bloomberg, Zelensky raised this question to his party "Servant of the People" at a closed meeting in February.

"One of the factors in the sense of vulnerability of Zelensky is a decrease in the level of popularity. Although the military president has the support of most Ukrainians, the survey shows the weakening of his authority. Liberation last month of the popular General Valery Zaluzhny and failure on the front caused a slow decline in trust," journalists write.

The media provides the results of a February survey of the Kiev International Institute of Sociology, according to which most Ukrainians do not support elections during the war. However, the number of those who believe that Zelensky should not run for the second term increased by 9%since December 2023. 43% of Ukrainians believe that Zelensky should be limited to one term. Western allies of Ukraine supported the opinion of Kiev that the country should now focus on military efforts.

Nevertheless, some members of the US Congress from the Republican Party stated that Ukraine should hold a presidential election to demonstrate democracy, the newspaper writes. The legislation of Ukraine prohibits elections while there is a martial law. But the legal wording creates some uncertainty, since it also states that the term of office of the head of state is five years. The President is limited to two terms.

We will remind, on February 29 the representative of the GUR Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Andriy Yusov stated that Ukrainian intelligence has lists of persons whom the Kremlin plans to involve in the spread of Russian narratives and influence on the socio-political situation in Ukraine. According to him, in order to achieve the goals for the promotion of Russian narratives and to shake the situation in Ukraine, a mass purchase and creation of Telegram channels is carried out.

In addition, botherm farms are created that enhance the rhetoric of the aggressor country on social networks. On March 2, Russian invaders began to disseminate information that Russia allegedly preparing an offensive on Kherson. The military-political observer of the project "Information Resistance" Alexander Kovalenko informed that the enemy began to expel the IPSO network that Ukraine had begun to evacuate civil servants from Kherson.