Zelensky uncertain allies bad polls dark face Whats happening to

Zelensky, uncertain allies, bad polls, dark face. What’s happening to the president? Seven of the

“I have aged, but not as I would have liked.” When journalists from around the world read Simon Shuster’s new cover piece on Time a few weeks ago, Zelensky’s critics smiled: Was the parable of the Ukrainian president beginning his downfall? Comparing the photo of a young and ambitious comic actor, the voice actor who gave his voice to Paddington Bear, who is unfamiliar with politics, with the face of a president and commander in chief, who has been wearing military fatigues every day for almost two years, capable of it He gathers a whole people around him against the enemy and has several wrinkles on his forehead. It really makes you wonder if these two could be the same person.
Tiredness, pessimism, nervousness. “Zelensky is no longer the same,” everyone in Kiev repeats.
Despite ten assassination attempts (a number confirmed at least until March by city councilor Mykhailo Podolyak), Zelensky never left his country. He stayed and maintained control and command of an army and a people overwhelmed by war, transforming himself into a leader even compared to Winston Churchill. Even today he still spends most of his time in the Bankova power palaces in the center of the capital, but is no longer barricaded in bunkers as he was in the first months of the war. In the last year he has been abroad several times and embarked on countless trips that have literally taken him around the world. While his personal safety remains a particularly sensitive issue, it no longer worries him as much as it once did. But paradoxically, he is more surrounded today than he was when he had the Russians and Chechens literally on his doorstep.

– Zelensky on the day of victory in the presidential elections, April 21, 2019. No trust

To understand why the leader is so discouraged, we need to rewind the tape and go back to 2019, when Zelensky won the presidential election with 73.22 percent of the vote, defeating Petro Poroshenko and becoming Ukraine’s sixth president. His acting career certainly helped him present himself to people as the new man, the underdog who would finally defeat corruption. But his inexperience in the field – his critics point out that he never served in the military – and his poor technical preparation could put him at risk at this complex and delicate stage.
Lots of open wounds. Although he initially led the resistance and then the counteroffensive, Zelenksy does not have an easy relationship with the Army General Staff. When General Valery Zaluzhny told The Economist in early November that the war was now at a stalemate, many observers thought it was finally time to restart negotiations. However, Serhii Plokhy, Harvard professor and author of “The Return of History” (Mondadori), says: “On the one hand, if Zelensky is facing Western pressure that wants him at the table, dialogue would resume at this moment certainly be to Putin’s advantage ».

Zelensky with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni

With Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson

With the Queen of Denmark Margrethe II and the heir to the throne Frederik

With UN Secretary Antonio Guterres

With US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken

With US President Joe Biden

With Canadian President Justin Trudeau

With French President Emmanuel Macron

With Chancellor Olaf Scholz

US printing

Looking at it from the other side, it means that the administration of US President Joe Biden, currently busy in the Middle East and worried about the upcoming elections, is not taking any direct steps. But he is applying pressure behind the scenes, even though he is aware that opening up to the Kremlin at this point would harm Ukraine and get Zelensky even more in trouble.
Zaluzhny is a popular general in Ukraine, and he also landed on the cover of Time last year. For everyone he is the hero of Kherson, liberated a year ago. And when he cites delays in Allied arms deliveries as reasons for the stalemate, as well as underestimation of Moscow’s ability to cope with the losses, he says that he no longer wants to send his men to the front to die without a parachute. The Ukrainian leader responded to Zaluzhny’s interview as if it were a personal attack, so much so that some observers suspected a coup. The deputy head of the presidential office, Ihor Zhovkva, accused Zanushny of playing into the hands of the Russians and causing the country to panic. A disorganized response that led to further tensions, heightened by suspicion over the accident in which Zaluzhny’s right hand died a few days after the article was published.

– Zelenskyy backstage at his satirical show “Liga Smeha”: It was 2019. The shadows behind the government

It is more difficult to understand what is going on between the Ukrainian 007 and the head of government. According to Mark Galeotti, a Russia and intelligence expert, despite support from Kiev, the US and Britain, as well as fears that operations on Russian territory or outside Ukraine could exacerbate the conflict with Moscow, things are not looking positive for the failure to democratize the SBU internal services considered them too autonomous. Apparently it is not enough that last summer Zelensky replaced Ivan Bakanov, his first loyalist (both were born in Kryvyi Rih), at the head of the secret service and replaced him with Kyrylo Budanov, who is considered closer to the West.
Zelenskyy appears increasingly alone. To stem the decline in support, he began a new fight against corruption over the summer. One of the most high-profile firings was that of Defense Minister Oleksy Reznikov, who was accused of supplying winter clothing to the military paid for in gold. Another head was probably sacrificed to please the Western allies. Reznikov was a man loyal to Andry Yermak, the president’s most trusted adviser. The son of a woman of Russian origin and a father of Jewish origin, Yeramak was always close to the president without ever overshadowing him. A good quality for those who work with Zelensky. Famous for turning an entire television production company, Studio Kvartal 95, into a political class that has taken control of the country, Zelensky follows his nature as an actor and reacts when someone tries to steal the stage.

The silence of the deputy

This may have persuaded his deputy, Iryna Vereshchuk, to stop giving interviews. A symbolic woman in the very first hours of the Russian invasion, questioned by the entire international press and called the Ukrainian Hillary, Vereshchuk works in secret to free the hostages. A lesson well remembered by First Lady Olena Zelensky, who always stayed one step behind her husband even when his critics accused him of drug addiction or an affair with his spokeswoman. Zelenska is committed to volunteering and working to free Ukrainian children who have fallen into Russian hands. She speaks to the international press and is a symbol, but she is always careful not to cause problems for her husband, while at the same time defending the privacy and safety of her children, who are placed in a safe place.

– The President of Ukraine with his wife Olena, whom he met in high school and married in 2003

Direct competitors

The biggest thorn in Zelensky’s side is now Oleksii Arestovych.

He is of Belarusian descent and recently announced his intention to run in the next presidential election, which Zelensky postponed to a later date. This did not happen before he resigned from his position as presidential adviser after accusing the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense forces of causing a massacre in Dnipro by firing a missile at a residential building. The narcissistic and histrionic Arestovych has been increasingly vocal in his criticism of Zelensky over the past year, taking positions that many in Ukraine view as pro-Russian. And from abroad, where he is attending a series of conferences, including in Italy, he suggests that the Ukrainians resume negotiations with Moscow. Finally, the polls are the most worrying headache. According to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, trust in the government fell from 93 percent in May to 73 percent in October, the same percentage Zelensky reached in the 2019 election before waging war against a superpower and its leader Vladimir Putin . “We should be honest,” Anton Hrushetsky, the director of the Kiev Institute, said in an interview with The New York Times. “People are becoming pessimistic.” A dilemma now arises for Zelensky, emphasizes Ukrainian journalist Sergii Rudenko, author of a biography of Zelensky published in Italy by Nutrimenti: If he gives in to pressure from allies who want him at the negotiating table, he will face more lose internal consensus. However, if he deviates from Washington’s line, he risks losing Washington’s support and remaining exposed to internal revenge.

The next president of Ukraine will be Vitaliy Klitschko, according to the most informed observers, including political scientist and blogger Viktor Bobyrenko. Yes, the world boxing champion who was present in Maidan Square during the 2014 protests (Zelenskyy was not there, however) and current mayor of Kyiv. There are two reasons that entitle him to vote: “To become president, you need the approval of the oligarchs.” But above all, Klichko is no longer as aggressive in politics as he was in boxing. He knows how to negotiate.” Will be. Meanwhile, Zelensky may have at least two more years in power ahead of him, as many years as he spent in the war. And really anything can happen.

WHO IS?

The life
Volodymyr Zelenskyy was born on January 25, 1978 in Kryvyi Rih into a Russian-speaking family of Jewish origin. He completed his law degree, but immediately decided to enter the world of cinema and set up a production company. As an actor, he was the protagonist of the television series Servant of the People, in which he played a high school teacher who unexpectedly becomes President of Ukraine. He is married to Olena Kijaško, whom he met in high school, and has two children, Oleksandra, 19 years old, and Kyrylo, 10 years old.
In politics
Riding the wave of success of the series that created a party, he ran for president four months before the vote, surprisingly winning on April 21, 2019 with 73.2% of the vote, beating incumbent President Petro Poroshenko. On February 24, 2022, Russia launched the invasion of Ukraine.

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