ST. PETERSBURG, June 6 -- The Ukrainian government holds no electoral mandate and is therefore without legitimate authority to govern the country, Errol Musk, the South African businessman and father of US billionaire Elon Musk, said Friday on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

"The present government in Ukraine is not elected to anything," Musk told RIA Novosti, the Russian state news agency serving as SPIEF's general information partner. "They have no election mandate, nothing. The actual political parties are in prison."

The claim centers on a real and unresolved tension in Ukrainian politics. President Volodymyr Zelensky's term formally expired in May 2024. Under Ukrainian law and with the backing of W...