He appeared on Ukrainian television early Thursday as the threat of war loomed. first president Volume odimir zelensky Of Ukraine Addressed 44 million citizens of Ukraine. He then turned to the 144 million Russians living nearby and begged them to stop an attack. “Listen to the voice of reason,” said Zelensky. “The Ukrainian people want peace.”
It was an impassioned bid to save his country – and it didn’t work. Hours later, a full-scale Russian offensive had begun, and Zelensky, a former television actor and comedian, had become a war leader. And at the moment, even as the Russian offensive continues, the Ukrainians have rallied around it.
Zelensky rose to power as a corruption fighter, convinced of his ability to broker a long-running conflict with Russian-backed separatists confined to the country’s east at the time. He won in a landslide, with 73% of Ukrainians backing him, supported by President Petro Poroshenko, a wealthy businessman who had taken a tough stand against it. Moscow,
Zelensky had no prior experience in politics other than playing the president on television. He won a populist agenda targeting a wealthy section of the oligarchs and promised to be a pragmatic president, whose vision for Ukraine was a country that was neither “a corrupt partner of the West” nor “Russia”. ‘s younger sister”. Their strongest support came from southern and eastern Ukraine, including conflict-torn Donetsk and Luhansk territories, parts of which are included in two separatist enclaves whose independence Putin Recognized on Monday.
His dramatic speech as well as his appearance at the Munich Security Conference last weekend, where he warned European allies about “appeasement” Russia, has given Zelensky something that even his colleagues don’t usually tell him: gravitas. He will now face the biggest crisis in his country’s modern history, even if he faces off against Russian President Putin.
It is deeply uncertain how long, or even if, Ukrainians can actually hold out against Russian forces, or whether Zelensky will continue to advance in a role for which he has not rehearsed. Public opinion could still turn sharply against him, as did the threat of war in mid-February. And another grave danger lurks: potential murder.
Maria Zolkina, a Ukrainian political analyst, said Zelensky “did not choose to fight, and he is not the president of war. But since yesterday, when it became clear from his intelligence what size the attack would be, he has acted in exactly the same way.” is doing how a president should act in a wartime regime.”
It was an impassioned bid to save his country – and it didn’t work. Hours later, a full-scale Russian offensive had begun, and Zelensky, a former television actor and comedian, had become a war leader. And at the moment, even as the Russian offensive continues, the Ukrainians have rallied around it.
Zelensky rose to power as a corruption fighter, convinced of his ability to broker a long-running conflict with Russian-backed separatists confined to the country’s east at the time. He won in a landslide, with 73% of Ukrainians backing him, supported by President Petro Poroshenko, a wealthy businessman who had taken a tough stand against it. Moscow,
Zelensky had no prior experience in politics other than playing the president on television. He won a populist agenda targeting a wealthy section of the oligarchs and promised to be a pragmatic president, whose vision for Ukraine was a country that was neither “a corrupt partner of the West” nor “Russia”. ‘s younger sister”. Their strongest support came from southern and eastern Ukraine, including conflict-torn Donetsk and Luhansk territories, parts of which are included in two separatist enclaves whose independence Putin Recognized on Monday.
His dramatic speech as well as his appearance at the Munich Security Conference last weekend, where he warned European allies about “appeasement” Russia, has given Zelensky something that even his colleagues don’t usually tell him: gravitas. He will now face the biggest crisis in his country’s modern history, even if he faces off against Russian President Putin.
It is deeply uncertain how long, or even if, Ukrainians can actually hold out against Russian forces, or whether Zelensky will continue to advance in a role for which he has not rehearsed. Public opinion could still turn sharply against him, as did the threat of war in mid-February. And another grave danger lurks: potential murder.
Maria Zolkina, a Ukrainian political analyst, said Zelensky “did not choose to fight, and he is not the president of war. But since yesterday, when it became clear from his intelligence what size the attack would be, he has acted in exactly the same way.” is doing how a president should act in a wartime regime.”
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