In 2019, many of my Ukrainian friends, intellectuals for the most part, criticized the election of a comedian and TV show host as president. They claimed that people had confused him with the character Zelensky played in the TV series Servant of the People, a history teacher who becomes president after criticizing the corrupt government.
Five years later, Zelensky’s name is known as far away as the Amazon rainforest because he has become the image and symbol of Ukraine fighting Russian aggression. At the very beginning of the war, when the U.S. Embassy suggested he evacuate Kyiv – at that time, the whole world was convinced that the Ukrainian capital would fall and the country’s sovereignty would be buried under the rubble – Zelensky had the courage to give a now-famous reply: “I don’t need a ride, I need ammunition.”
Since the Russian invasion, Zelensky has been tirelessly traveling to capitals and institutions around the world, advocating for military and financial aid for Ukraine. In three years, he has been given standing ovations in dozens of parliaments, including the United States Congress and Senate. He has brought various heads of state and ministers to Kyiv, which has changed the perception of the war for some of them, including Emmanuel Macron. He has courageously made dozens of trips to the front line, staying close to the fighters, close to his people.
This strategy paid off. While Ukraine resisted, he was able to obtain ever more substantial, albeit insufficient, aid from the EU and the United States and promote the idea of a future tribunal for Russian war crimes. Of course, as the war drags on, the welcome in Western countries is no longer as enthusiastic as it once was, but Europe’s support seems unwavering. President Zelensky still enjoys a high percentage of favorable opinions in his country, between 50% and 60%. This is a higher rating than that of most European leaders, higher than Donald Trump’s. Some Ukrainians, tired of three years of war, loss of life and unspeakable suffering, criticize Zelensky for his shortcomings in the organization of defense and mobilization, etc., but the people are calling neither for fresh elections nor for impeachment.
This unshaven little guy in camouflage or a khaki jacket appears as a visionary, a new Churchill who leads his people to victory through a raging storm. Since the beginning of the war, the Kremlin has been betting on his elimination. We know that in 2022, Ramzan Kadyrov’s henchmen were tasked with this job, but failed. In total, several assassination attempts against Zelensky have been foiled by the Ukrainian security services. The Kremlin has also claimed that Zelensky is not a legitimate president because his regime emerged from the Maidan Uprising, which the Russian administration describes as a “coup d’état”. This claim, as well as the plan to eliminate the Ukrainian president, are part of the so-called “denazification” strategy, namely the replacement of the existing leadership with a pro-Russian regime.
From the end of 2023, a few months before the presidential election that should have been held in May 2024, except that martial law prohibits the holding of elections in accordance with the Ukrainian Constitution, Putin himself and the Russian propagandists began to use a new argument about Zelensky’s supposed illegitimacy. They demanded elections and tirelessly emphasized that only a new president, pro-Russian of course, could negotiate with them.
That Zelensky, a true patriot, is like a bone stuck in Putin’s throat is not surprising. What is mind-boggling is that Trump and his propagandists not only repeat the Kremlin’s talking points, but add to them.
When Trump calls Zelensky “the greatest salesman on Earth” and “a modestly successful comedian” who managed to extort 350 billion dollars from “sleepy Joe” (Biden), it is untrue. For the tax years 2022 to 2024, the U.S. Congress granted Ukraine a total of $183 billion, part of which is included in programs for the coming years. Over three years, Ukraine has received $67 billion worth of arms and $31.5 billion in direct budgetary aid from the United States. In addition, some of the money allocated to support Ukraine has been returned to the United States. American companies have taken advantage of these funds to produce new weapons to replace older weapons given to Ukraine.
When Trump accuses Zelensky of refusing to organize elections and calls him a “dictator without elections”, it is a repetition of the Kremlin’s allegations. When he claims that Zelensky’s popularity rating is 4%, he goes beyond Russian lies. Elon Musk, who uses his X to spread hate and lies, even wrote that Zelensky had been “fired” from his post.
It is particularly shocking that Trump is now accusing Ukraine of starting a “stupid war” that it had no chance of winning. Even Russian propaganda does not deny that Russia started the war. Indeed, Putin himself announced on February 24, 2022, that he was launching a “special military operation,” following which Russian troops proceeded with a full-scale invasion without asking Ukraine for anything beforehand.
Trump’s lies and bad faith are also evident in his claim that Zelensky mistreated U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who had come to Kyiv to sign an agreement on minerals. According to Trump, Zelensky did not even receive the minister because he was “sleeping”. In fact, Zelensky met with Bessent on February 12, as confirmed by photos of the meeting.
The aim of these stabs in the back is to wrest from Zelensky the signing of the aforementioned colonial-type agreement on the extraction of minerals and rare earths, as well as on the use of ports and other infrastructures by American companies, before any negotiations on the cessation of hostilities. The Trump administration estimates that the share to be extorted from a Ukraine that has been bled dry in favor of the United States will be 500 billion dollars, but gives no guarantee for future peace. As a responsible statesman, even under terrible pressure, Zelensky did not sign this agreement because it does not serve the interests of his country. From now on, Trump and his entourage are resorting to disinformation, lies and blackmail. For example, Elon Musk is threatening to deprive Ukraine of coverage from his Starlink network, which is the main means of communication for the Ukrainian military. As for Trump, he is hinting that if Zelensky resists, he will soon have no country left.
In short, the Ukrainian president is now like a bone stuck not only in Putin’s throat, but also in those of Trump and his entourage. This is why the American administration, like the Russians, insists on presidential elections being held in Ukraine as a precondition for peace. Thanks to social media manipulation, of which Musk’s henchmen and the Kremlin’s trolls are great specialists, in a country at war with millions of displaced persons and nearly a million on the front line, it would be easy to obtain rigged results. The Russian media is already talking about candidates who would suit the Kremlin, namely the deposed Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and the pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, godfather of one of Putin’s daughters, on trial in Ukraine for high treason.
Now more than ever, Volodymyr Zelensky, the man Moscow and Washington want to see brought down, needs Europe’s unwavering support. The future of Ukraine depends on it.
Born in Moscow, she has been living in France since 1984. After 25 years of working at RFI, she now devotes herself to writing. Her latest works include: Le Régiment immortel. La Guerre sacrée de Poutine, Premier Parallèle 2019; Traverser Tchernobyl Premier Parallèle, 2016.
