While Ukrainian forces continue to suffer setback after setback on the battlefield, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky also finds his position within the country under attack from both his fellow Ukrainian politicians and his sponsors in the West.
Ukraine is becoming more and more autocratic under the leadership of President Volodymyr Zelensky, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko told media.
During an interview with the Globe and Mail last week, Klitschko expressed his concerns about Zelensky’s critics in Ukraine being silenced by Ukrainian authorities, arguing that he cannot regard the tendencies he sees in the country as democratic.
Meanwhile, the United States seeks to have dozens of high-ranking Ukrainian officials from Zelensky’s government fired and replaced with figures loyal first and foremost to the US, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service’s head Sergey Naryshkin revealed.
If Zelensky does not cave in to these demands, the US threatens to release damning evidence of corruption that would deal a terrible blow to the Ukrainian president and his entourage, Naryshkin suggested.
Washington’s new rhetoric in the dialogue with Zelensky highlights the fact that the Ukrainian leader and the DC policymakers pursue different goals in the Ukrainian conflict, explained political analyst Bogdan Bezpalko, member of the Russian Presidential Council for Interethnic Relations.
Whereas the United States seeks to achieve “certain geopolitical dominance” in the Eastern Hemisphere, Zelensky’s primary goal is to remain in power, Bezpalko explained, noting that Washington does not really need Zelensky to continue the Ukrainian conflict the way the US wants.
“It is possible that during the election in Ukraine, which is supposed to take place in March, a new leader who does not have blood on their hands would be elected, who might agree to peace talks and to freezing the conflict, which would fit into the United States’ current goals and long-term planning,” he said.
While the United States would welcome such reprieve, allowing as it would to rebuild and rearm Ukraine and then throw it again at Russia “like a battering ram,” Zelensky does not want this scenario to occur, Bezpalko noted.
“Because for him [Zelensky], the conflict means salvation. While the conflict continues, he is on top, he controls the flow of money and energy, he controls the flow of arms, and he remains the person who, at least nominally, controls the situation,” the analyst explained.
According to Bezpalko, the United States likely has “loads” of dirt not only on Zelensky but also on other Ukrainian government officials, including evidence of embezzlement of government funds and information about their offshore accounts and property abroad.
Regarding the remarks made by Klitschko, the analyst argued that Kiev’s mayor was likely acting as a speaker for a certain political faction in Ukraine whose members are not too thrilled with Zelensky’s leadership.
He did note, however, that Klitschko is unlikely to become Ukraine’s next president – assuming, of course, that there will be a presidential election in Ukraine in the near future.
“There are many politicians in Ukraine who have a much more respectable image than Zelensky and who may become a president of Ukraine,” Bezpalko said. “This is still a largely puppet position, and everyone perfectly understands that, but it is a well-paid position.”
He also expressed skepticism about the prospects of democracy in Ukraine as long as the country is essentially being directly controlled from Washington DC.
“There is no democracy there, no competition between politicians, between representatives of different parts of the political spectrum. Because there is only one spectrum – the nationalist one,” he said. “Klitschko obviously appeals to ‘democracy’ as a concept, to the word that could discredit Zelensky and once again highlight his authoritarianism. Yes, Ukraine today is indeed an authoritarian, even a totalitarian state.”
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