I think it shouldn't need to be said, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not a dictator.
He was elected in a free and fair election in 2019, winning over 70% of the vote in the second round runoff.
He and Ukraine did not start the war, it started when Russian forces invaded in 2022.
When Putin denies the legitimacy of Zelenskyy as president of Ukraine, it is important to remember that he rejects the legitimacy of Ukraine as an independent country.
There are Putin-friendly propagandists who spread the theory that Ukraine, the Baltic states etc. are basically just Soviet republics in soft rebellion against the Soviet Union for the past 30+ years, meaning that they had never actually gained independence from their Russian overlord in the first place.
This is also Putin's view on the matter; this is the political world he was born into and grew up in. It is obvious in the way he dictates politics in Belarus and the inner-Asian -stan countries, in how he meddles with elections in Moldova, Germany, Kosovo etc., in how he sends spy ships into foreign waters as a provocation and to test local resistance.
Putin is trying to reestablish Russia as a continental hegemonial power surrounded by satellite states governed by puppet rulers. How far further can he extend his reach into Scandinavia, Southern and Western Europe, even Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean (think Mali, Syria) before someone stands up to him?
