Five years ago, the former comedian and former actor Volodymyr Zelensky assumed the position of president of Ukraine pledging to make “difficult decisions” to achieve a ceasefire in the east of his country, immersed in war since pro-Russian separatists declared the independence of two regions in 2014.
Five years later, Zelensky He ends his first term this Tuesday without the prospect of being able to hold elections again and consolidated in a role diametrically opposed to the one he claimed for himself in that investiture speech: that of wartime leader of an invaded country who sees no dialogue options to silence the weapons.
“I can assure you that I am prepared to pay any price to stop our heroes dying,” he said then. Zelensky to the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) after being elected with an overwhelming 73% of the votes thanks to a program of democratic regeneration that also included the promise of dialogue to end the war.
A truncated mission The fate of his presidency would begin to change dramatically at the end of 2021, when the deployment of Russian troops along the border with Ukraine ordered by the Russian president, Vladimir Putinmade it clear that the opening of Zelensky to seek an agreed solution to the conflict with the Kremlin’s pawns in the Donbas.
Shortly after, on February 24, 2022, the threat was consummated and Russia attacked by land, sea and air all Ukraine.
The pacifist president assumed leadership of the Army and the country refusing to leave the capital and inspiring millions of people around the world with his courage to face a clearly superior enemy.
Dressed in the military green t-shirt – or sweatshirt, depending on the season – that already characterizes him, Zelensky began a period of uninterrupted frenetic activity to lead the resistance, manage a country at war, maintain the morale of the population and convince his allies to help Ukraine.
In his inauguration speech, the new Ukrainian president said he was willing to “lose fame, popularity” and even his position to bring peace, as long as this did not entail a renunciation of rights. territories of the eastern regions of Lugansk and Donetsk in the hands of the Kremlin’s puppet militias.
Eight hundred days without vacation Any of the thousands of speeches he has given in the more than eight hundred days of war that Zelensky has no weekends or holidays reflect the transformation that the large-scale invasion wrought in the Ukrainian leader’s thinking about the possibility of an understanding with Russia.
At 46 years old, Volodymyr Zelensky He reaches the end of his first term with levels of global fame much higher than those he achieved as a successful actor in the Russian-speaking world from which today he wants to separate himself forever. Ukraine.
The respect it has earned among international leaders and public opinion It comes, however, with extremely difficult decisions and dilemmas – such as the mobilization of the adult male population or the eventual renunciations of territories that may have to be made to end the war – on which Ukrainians will eventually decide at the polls.
For now, Zelenskywho has visibly aged in the last two years due to the weight of his responsibility in the midst of the war, will continue in command without elections as the Constitution prohibits the holding of elections while martial law is in force.
Regardless of your opinion of the pacifist president who became a world-class wartime leader, A large majority of Ukrainians and practically all their political representatives are aware of the impossibility of going to the polls under the bombs and close ranks with Zelensky.
(With information from EFE)
