A rival to Putin rises in Ukraine
KIEV, Ukraine — He’s a quickwitted politician who understands the power of television, has broad public support at home and, perhaps not so important, sometimes takes off his shirt in public.
And he is not President Vladimir Putin, Russia’s paramount leader of nearly 20 years.
This is Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the former comedian who became Ukraine’s president in May and has followed his unconventional rise to power with an equally unexpected display of diplomatic flair.
Aides to Zelenskiy insist that his focus is domestic overhaul, and that he is not striving to become the anti-Putin in a region where the Russian leader has faced much criticism but few competitors for star power.
But a rivalry is already apparent. Ukraine’s relationship with Russia, which seized part of its territory in 2014 and has continued to back a wider separatist uprising, is the pivot around which many of Europe’s most pressing security problems revolve. Zelenskiy has approached it with a combination of calculated assertiveness and strategic generosity, reaching out to Russian speakers whom his nationalist predecessor could not hope to win over.
“One of the reasons for this conflict is the two countries have chosen different ways of development,” said Bogdan Yaremenko, a newly elected member of parliament in Zelenskiy’s political party who is focused on foreign policy and relations with Russia.
“And now this actor who is perceived very positively by most of his viewers is representing his country,” Yaremenko said. “So the positive attitude toward Zelenskiy might be transferred to Ukraine, and the Ukrainian way of government.”
Western sanctions are creating a long-term drag on the Russian economy, denting Putin’s still-high popularity at home and creating pressure for the Kremlin to find a resolution to the conflict in Ukraine.
Zelenskiy campaigned on promises to seek an end to the conflict, giving rise to cautious optimism among Western diplomats over Europe’s only active war, simmering now for five years. Zelenskiy telephoned Putin on July 11, suggesting that both sides were ready to engage.
Like two boxers in a ring, however, Putin and Zelenskiy have spent two months circling, dancing around and jabbing each other.
Putin appears to have engineered a series of small crises to test the new president. But where the previous Ukrainian leader, Petro Poroshenko, was constrained by Ukrainian nationalist sentiment in parliament, Zelenskiy has seized chances to appeal to eastern Ukraine’s Russianspeaking miners and steel workers — and even to those tiring of Putin in Russia.
His government declared a cease-fire that is mostly holding, has pulled soldiers from the front line near one checkpoint to ease civilian access, and has invested in border towns on the Ukrainian side. Zelenskiy traveled to Mariupol, a steel town in eastern Ukraine, to announce a $25 million investment to reduce air pollution.
“You need to win the minds of people, in the first place,” Gen. Ruslan Khomchak, chief of the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces, said in an interview. Khomchak was Zelenskiy’s first appointment.
“You cannot solve the conflict in Donbass,” he added, referring to the restive eastern region, “with purely military means. That time is past.”
Putin responded to Zelenskiy’s election by offering Russian passports to Russian-speaking residents of separatist areas of eastern Ukraine, a potentially ominous move because further military intervention could then be justified as protecting Russian citizens.
Zelenskiy countered with an appeal to the Russian opposition. “We know perfectly well what a Russian passport provides,” he said. “The right to be arrested for a peaceful protest” and “the right not to have free and competitive elections.”