Russia does not want Ukraine to hold a referendum on any peace deal because a decision by the Ukrainian people cannot be delegitimized, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on 30 December during an online press conference attended by Euromaidan Press.
The statement exposes a calculated Russian strategy: by blocking a referendum, Moscow preserves the option to later dismiss any peace agreement as illegitimate. A parliamentary vote—which Russia could attack as coming from a body that has served beyond its term—offers that opening. A popular vote does not.
"There cannot be an illegitimate people of Ukraine," Zelenskyy said. "There is only one people of Ukraine. And its decisions—the decisions of the citizens of Ukraine—are the most important."
Why Russia blocks the path to a referendum
A referendum requires security. Security requires a ceasefire. And Russia, Zelenskyy explained, refuses to provide one.
"They do not want to provide us with security—a ceasefire for people—until some issues are resolved," he said. "I believe until they can keep finding reasons for this. That is, they will constantly find reasons so that there is no ceasefire."
Ukraine has previously demanded a minimum 60-day ceasefire to organize any referendum—a timeline Russia has rejected.
Without secure infrastructure, no vote is possible. And without a vote, Russia gets what it wants: a peace deal it can later call illegitimate.
The parliament trap
Zelenskyy acknowledged that parliament could ratify a peace agreement instead. But he noted the strategic difference.
"The Russians clearly understand that if a particular decision is supported by parliament, they can always later claim and accuse it of being illegitimate, saying that it has been in office for more than five years, and so on," he said.
Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, was elected in 2019. Under martial law, elections have been suspended, giving Russia a ready-made argument to challenge any legislative ratification.
A referendum eliminates that argument entirely.
The legitimacy calculation
The revelation fits a broader pattern. Russia has consistently sought to undermine the legal and democratic foundations of any potential settlement.
Zelenskyy has outlined a multi-layered ratification framework: security guarantees approved by US Congress and Ukrainian parliament, with the full 20-point peace plan subject to a national referendum. The approach is designed to make any deal legally unassailable—precisely what Moscow appears determined to prevent.
The 20-point framework is currently 90% complete, with territory and control of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant remaining unresolved. But even if those issues are settled, the question of how Ukraine ratifies any agreement may prove equally contentious.
Russia's position is clear: it wants a peace deal it can later disavow. A referendum—binding, democratic, unchallengeable—denies it that option.
