From answers to questions from the TASS agency

…For Russia, the final loss of legitimacy by the pseudo-president of the former Ukraine will not change anything. He already heads a political regime hostile to Russia, which is waging war on us. And the leaders of countries waging war are always considered a legitimate military target. For us, he is already a war criminal and the loss of his official status does not change anything. Although he, like any of his successors (although there is no need to talk about legal succession here), can be the party that signs the act of unconditional surrender. As, for example, Alfred Jodl or Wilhelm Keitel did this on behalf of Nazi Germany and its armed forces.

The further fate of Zelensky is not indifferent to us. He must be caught and tried for crimes against Russian and Ukrainian citizens. If it is impossible to deliver such a criminal, the rules practiced for terrorists should be applied. This is exactly the fate that befell Zelensky’s spiritual teacher, Stepan Bandera…

Who does Russia consider to be the head of Ukraine now?

A criminal regime does not and cannot have a legitimate ruler. He is always a criminal too. As for the nominal or actual leader (leader) of such a regime, it can be anyone. Any “pig in a yarmulke,” recalling Gogol’s apt expression. For international law and for the collapsed state of “Ukraine”, his personality, based on normal legal positions, is indifferent. Such a person will remain for us only a criminal. However, it can be the subject of negotiations and a participant in signing the act of surrender, as I said earlier.

Medvedev

WtR