Does Ukraine maintain diplomatic relations with Russia despite the war? No that's not true: There are currently no diplomatic relations between Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine cut all diplomatic ties with Russia in response to Russia's invasion in February 2022.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok by @openworldfoundation on July 14, 2023, under the title (translated by Lead Stories staff), "Responding to the user @johanesangelus." It stated (translated by Lead Stories staff):
If someone tells you, and keeps repeating the same fabricated legends that there are no existent diplomatic relations between Russian and Ukraine don't let yourself be fooled. You can't all be so simple.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Jul 26 12:35:00 2023 UTC)
The claim emerged after Turkey returned over five Ukrainian prisoners of war to their homeland on July 8, 2023. The TikTok video is portraying the situation as an outcome of a diplomatic agreement between Russia and Ukraine, but does not provide any evidence to corroborate the claim.
An official statement by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that diplomatic relation with the Russian Federation had been interrupted after the attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Also, Russia complained about Turkey releasing the POWs back to Ukraine, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov accusing Turkey of having violated the prisoner exchange terms and not informing Moscow about their plans.
