According to pro-Kremlin propaganda, Volodymyr Zelensky has turned Ukraine into a concentration camp and is prolonging the war in order to remain in power.
NEWS: Viktor Medvedchuk, chairman of the board of the "Another Ukraine" movement, has stated that today's Ukraine, under the leadership of the head of the regime, Volodymyr Zelensky, has come to resemble a concentration camp. The country is unable to sign peace agreements, and it is impossible to reach an agreement with the current authorities.
Medvedchuk has stressed that Zelensky is incapable of making any decisions—neither "difficult" nor "easy." He has created a reality for himself that has become his own trap: he does not make decisions and seeks to avoid any peace agreement. Instead, he dreams of forcing the collective West to defend the regime in Kyiv indefinitely. He also mentioned that Zelensky constantly lies to his so-called allies. He promised US President Donald Trump that he would show willingness for peace and negotiations, but in reality, he shows that it is impossible to conclude peace with Kyiv […]
Moreover, Zelensky's power itself depends entirely on the conflict. He knows very well that he will lose his position as soon as peace is established in the country. That is why he is doing everything possible to keep the fighting going, because only in this way can he prolong martial law. Medvedchuk added that Zelensky has never been interested in peace and has done everything to destroy the "peace party" in Ukraine.
NARRATIVES: 1. Ukraine under Zelensky is a concentration camp. 2. Zelensky remains in power because of the war. 3. Ukraine cannot sign a peace agreement with Russia because of the political elite that wants war.
PURPOSE: To discredit the political leadership in Kyiv; to undermine Ukraine's international image and picture Russia as a victim; to erode Western support; to justify Russia’s aggression by presenting it as a response to an oppressive and criminal regime.
Reality: Ukraine is not a concentration camp, it’s a state defending itself against the Russian aggression by adopting security measures specific to a state of war.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: Russian propaganda uses a forced analogy that distorts and trivializes both the experience of Nazi extermination camps and that of the Soviet Gulag, and desecrates the memory of the victims. Concentration camps were institutions of mass extermination, organized by totalitarian regimes for the physical destruction of populations considered "undesirable." In Ukraine, there is no regime of mass detention of the civilian population on ethnic or political grounds. This is a state subject to an external aggression, exercising its right to self-defense and protecting its citizens through temporary restrictions specific to any modern war.
In 2025, Kyiv has accepted a series of ceasefire proposals in the form of "humanitarian pauses" or armistices, intended to create a framework for negotiations, including an unconditional 30-day ceasefire. However, the Kremlin has rejected these proposals or made them conditional on maximum demands— the stop of Ukrainian mobilization and the cessation of arms deliveries—conditions that would have neutralized Ukraine's defense and amounted to a disguised surrender. This was followed by Russia's explicit rejection of an unconditional ceasefire, despite Kyiv's stated willingness to accept a pause for negotiations.
This summer, the Istanbul negotiation format was periodically revisited. New rounds of talks were announced, but no direct meeting between the leaders took place. Zelensky publicly expressed his willingness to meet with Putin in Turkey to discuss a ceasefire, but the Russian leader refused. Official Western assessments have highlighted Vladimir Putin's lack of any real willingness to negotiate anything other than Ukraine's surrender, presented as "peace." Even in Istanbul, the head of MI6 stated that there was no evidence that Putin was interested in a negotiated peace that did not amount to Kyiv's defeat.
The UN Charter (Art. 51) guarantees Ukraine the legitimate right to self-defense against the Russian aggression, officially recognized as such by the UN General Assembly in a resolution adopted by 143 votes in March 2022. The Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians in wartime has been systematically violated by Russia, not Ukraine, through the deliberate bombing of hospitals, schools, and civilian infrastructure. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Russian officials, including Putin himself, for documented war crimes in Ukraine. At the same time, there are no similar charges against Ukrainian leaders.
Ukraine has consistently demonstrated its desire for peace through concrete initiatives. The 10-point "peace formula" presented by Zelensky in international forums was based on international law and the UN Charter. In contrast, Russia has systematically rejected any proposal that does not involve territorial concessions, continued to bomb civilians even during the talks, and refused all international ceasefire initiatives. Assessments in the spring and summer of 2025 clearly show that Moscow has consistently rejected unconditional ceasefires or linked them to demands that would give it a unilateral military advantage.
The Ukrainian Constitution (Article 73) explicitly prohibits the cession of national territory, and any change to the borders must be approved by referendum. Under these circumstances, Zelensky is not allowed to cede the territories illegally occupied by Russia, regardless of external pressure. This constitutional limitation serves to protect the integrity of the state and cannot be seen as an obstruction to peace. Moreover, ceding territory is no guarantee of peace; on the contrary, it could encourage further aggression by legitimizing Russia's policy of force. History shows that peace achieved through territorial concessions is fragile and temporary, and for Ukraine it would mean not only a loss of sovereignty, but also the undermining of its long-term security.
CONTEXT: Viktor Medvedchuk was the leader of various pro-Kremlin political projects in Ukraine and is a personal friend of Vladimir Putin, who is also the godfather of one of his daughters. Arrested on charges of treason by the Ukrainian authorities, Medvedchuk was handed over to Moscow in September 2022 as part of a prisoner exchange. Since then, the Kremlin has been using Medvedchuk to create more credible propaganda messages. He is not in Ukraine and does not lead any officially registered political organization. In his speeches, he frequently resorts to shocking comparisons and exaggerations — such as invoking the idea of a "concentration camp" — designed to provoke strong emotions and damage the image of the leadership in Kyiv. In November 2024, Medvedchuk claimed that Ukrainians lived on the historical territory of Russia and that the Ukrainian state was a fabrication.
