in Ukraine public opinion during the war has been strongly against the president to Volodymyr Zelensky and behind the rest of the political leadership. The country’s usually quarrelsome politicians have buried their differences.
However, the failure of the counterattack seems to have changed the situation. According to some measurements, Zelensky’s popularity has fallen, and Ukrainians’ confidence in favorable developments is at an all-time low throughout the war.
At the same time, rifts have started to appear between key political and military decision-makers in Kyiv.
Mayor of Kyiv, former boxer Vitali Klytsko criticized Zelenskyi German Spiegel’s in an interview published last week.
Klitschko warned that Ukraine is heading towards authoritarianism.
“At some point, we will no longer be different from Russia, where everything depends on one man’s mood,” he said.
In the same in the interview, Klytško complained that he has not had a phone conversation or a meeting with Zelenskyi during the entire war, even though their workplaces are only a few hundred meters apart.
Klitschko believes that Ukrainian democracy is under threat, but Ukrainians are too freedom-loving to surrender to authoritarianism.
Later, Klytško still added water to the mill with the Swiss 20 minutes – magazine by saying that the country’s leadership has created a too rosy picture of Ukraine’s military success.
“Our president has an important mission today and we must support him until the end of the war. But after the war is over, every politician will have to account for his successes and failures,” he said.
The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klytško, was photographed in his office in August 2022 during an interview with HS.
Klitschko and Zelenskyi are political opponents. After becoming president, Zelenskyi tried to pry Klitschko from the post of mayor, but changed his mind.
At the beginning of the war, Klitschko appeared more conciliatory towards the Zelenskys.
“Right now we all have to stick together. This is not the right moment for political action. Political factions have lost their meaning and all have united around the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine. Every politician must be behind Ukraine,” Klytsko said In an interview with HS In Kyiv in August 2022.
To Zelensky and the commander of the armed forces To Valery Zaluzhny the intervals are also said to be bad.
In November, Zalužnyi said For the Economist magazine that the war is in danger of getting stuck in a stalemate, an assessment Zelenskyi denied.
After this, Zelenskyi said In an interview with The Sunthat if a soldier wants to participate in politics, he should not fight wars.
Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander Valery Zalužnyi (center) participated in the commemoration of the victims of the Holodomor genocide in Kyiv at the end of November.
of Ukrainska Pravda according to an extensive article published on Monday, there is a real conflict between Zelenskyi and Commander Zalužnyi. Zelenskyi considers the popular commander a threat to himself and is considering firing him.
According to the newspaper, as the war progresses, Zelenskyi has taken on more and more decision-making power in military matters as well.
According to Ukrainska Pravda, Zelenskyi talks with lower military commanders past Zalužnyi. This creates problems for the military leadership when Zalužnyi hears about the president’s decisions from his subordinates.
The magazine mentions the commander of the ground forces as trusted by Zelensky To Oleksandr Syrskyi and Air Force Commander Mykola Oleštšukkin.
Syrskyi was a strong candidate to become commander of the armed forces in 2021, when Zelenskyi finally appointed Zalužnyi.
Ukraine’s ground forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi was photographed together with President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on the Donetsk front last June.
In November Zelenskyi dismissed the generals Viktor Horenko and Tetyana Ostashchenko, who were considered close to the Zalužnyi. Of the third general Serhiy Najevin is said to be under investigation in connection with the collapse of the southern front at the beginning of the war.
Zalužnyi has shown no sign of aspiring to politics, but if he were to be fired, he could do so. At that time, his strong support would be a threat to Zelenskyi.
According to a closed poll conducted by Ukrainska Pravda, Zelensky’s support in the second round would now be 42 percent and Zalužny’s 40 percent.
However, holding elections during a state of emergency is not possible according to Ukrainian law. The Presidential Office has announced that the elections will not be held as planned in 2024.
Citizens are also against holding elections in opinion polls. Millions of Ukrainians are abroad, hundreds of thousands are at the front. It would be impossible to hold elections in the territories occupied by Russia.
So far, Zelensky’s assistant, who was fired at the beginning of the year, has registered as a presidential candidate It would be Arestovich. Running a charity is also popular Serhi with Prytulawhich HS interviewed earlier in the fall.
Last last week it became public knowledge that the authorities have blocked the previous president Petro Poroshenko trips abroad.
Poroshenko is the chairman of Ukraine’s largest opposition party and a political enemy of Zelensky, whom he tried to impeach before the war.
Ukraine’s previous president, Petro Poroshenko, pictured in Kyiv in June 2020.
In Ukraine, male citizens need a permit to leave the country.
Poroshenko said at the press conference that he would have liked to negotiate with the leaders of Hungary and Slovakia, who are critical of Ukraine, in November. However, he was not given permission to leave.
“I proposed a meeting … to convince the leaders, whom I know very well,” Poroshenko told a news conference Hromadsken by.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó confirmed that Poroshenko had a scheduled meeting with the Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with.
According to Poroshenko, he was finally allowed to leave the country in early December, but the border guards turned him back.
He said he was going to Poland and the United States.
“The plan was to negotiate with the Poles about lifting the blockade of drivers at the border, and with the Americans to discuss the continuation of funding for military aid,” the former president said.
According to the Security Service of Ukraine, a provocation related to an international meeting was being prepared, the purpose of which was to disrupt Ukrainian society.
To Zelensky there is conflicting information about its popularity.
Kyiv Institute of Sociology KIIS according to October, 76 percent still trusted the president.
The Economist however, in the survey I saw, trust in the president would have dropped to 32 percent, while Zalužnyi would be trusted by 70 percent.
Adversities on the front have increased the rift between Ukraine’s decision-makers, and the rift may benefit Russia the most.
Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andri Chernyak told the Economist that Russia has three goals: to strengthen support for the war in Russia, to reduce Ukraine’s support in the West, and to bring about fragmentation in Ukraine.
An unnamed government source criticized Zelensky’s political opponents to the Economist for the same reason:
“They think they can challenge power and destroy Zelenskyi without consequences [sodankäynnille].”
However, the positive interpretation is that Ukraine is a democracy even in the midst of war.
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