The result was a convincing victory of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose candidacy was supported by 73 percent of Ukrainian voters. Throughout the entire history of an independent Ukraine, no politician before him has managed to score a landslide election victory.
After that, the newly-elected President exerted pressure for the legislature to be reelected. Soon, the snap parliamentary election took place as a result of which the majority of seats in the Verkhovna Rada were taken by supporters of the new leader.
In August, with the aid of the parliamentary faction “Servants of the People” Zelenskyy managed to force many ministers, former President Poroshenko’s appointees, to leave their nice long-occupied positions. Substantial changes took place in the corps of regional leaders, too.
Incumbent President Zelenskyy set about to eliminate corruption and poverty. Actually, he made many other promises.
The President’s unconditional victory is his successful effort to return many Ukrainians who have been kept prisoners for years in the separatists-occupied districts of Ukraine and in Russia, particularly Oleh Sentsov.
However, even prisoners’ exchanges have caused mixed emotions in the public. After all, Ukraine has surrendered its citizens to the enemy ‒ among them were special squad soldiers who were accused of shootings at Maidan activists as well as Vladimir Tsemakh, a witness to the MH17 plane crash in the war-torn Donbas. Those persons have to be tried in Ukraine. Instead, Russia let them go free.
The President has promised to build a bridge near the village of Stanytsia Luhanska so that local people will be able to cross safely the line of division in Donbas. He kept his promise. Besides, two checkpoints “Chonhar” and “Kolonchak” have been created on the Ukrainian border with the Crimean peninsula.
The Verkhovna Rada has finally passed the law granting Ukrainian volunteers who are engaged in the counter-terrorist operation in Donbas the status of combatants. And perhaps that’s all achievements of the President “on the battlefield”, as political analysts claim.
Zelenskyy made an attempt to restart talks within the Normandy Format and ensure a stable ceasefire but no progress has been achieved in this direction. The war goes on in Donbas while Russia has made no concessions.
The annexation of the Crimean peninsula remains a problem. So far, Ukraine has no clear plan for bringing the Russian Federation to responsibility.
The new Election Code and the restoration of criminal responsibility for illegal enrichment that was abolished during the Poroshenko rule have become positive steps in political sphere.
The partial introduction of land market and the closure of illegal gambling business can be considered important achievements of the President Zelenskyy, too. Also, the deputy immunity has been abolished. And Zelenskyy has initiated the adoption of the law on the impeachment of the President. And although all these steps have brought no improvement in living standards, Ukrainians have approved of these long-awaited laws.
The President has been true to his word and brought new faces into politics. Political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko comments on this fact in the following way, “Of course, there are problematic personages among them. After all, the process of renewal has been very swift. The Verkhovna Rada has been renewed for more than 80 percent, an incredible phenomenon in the entire history of Ukrainian parliamentarianism. The Government has been renewed too and got younger. Yes, the newcomers do not have enough experience. They make mistakes. But the society did want to see new faces in the power”.
Nevertheless, Zelenskyy is criticized most of all for his cadres policy. Quite a few new faces in Parliament and the Government have proved to be completely inadequate from the professional standpoint. Some of them got involved in corruption scheming. However, Zelenskyy has shown that he can be quick and efficient in replacing the key figures in the Government. His predecessors proved to be a failure in this field. And this fact adds to the rating of the Incumbent President, political scientist Oleh Saakyan maintains.
It is naïve to think that Zelenskyy will be able to eradicate corruption completely in the power structures. Recently, Presidential Administration Chief Andriy Yermak has got into a corruption scandal. The compromising videos implicating Yermak’s brother in “selling” high-level positions have leaked into the mass media. The videos feature a person who looks like Denys Yermak meeting with people seeking to be appointed to high-level positions in the government or state-owned companies. They ask him for help and discuss payment for his services.
It’s very likely that we’ll hear about more corruption scandals. But there has been no loud scandal involving the President.
Ukrainians believe little in that the power of oligarchs may be restricted. Though this has not happened on the whole, Zelenskyy has nevertheless managed to take a few smart steps in this direction. First of all, it is the draft law on banks that has been approved in the first reading.
The bill that prohibits return of the nationalized banks to their former owners “strikes” at interests of oligarch Igor Kolomoyisky, the chief “political sponsor” of the President.
However, the President has not dared so far to launch the comprehensive and all-embracing restart of the existing system, Saakyan says. Apparently, Zelenskyy has made a compromise with Ukrainian oligarchs and the existing political elites. Besides, the political scientist stresses, no one dares to touch judges and prosecutors who also constitute the elite.
As for political opponents, the President is sharply criticized by the pro-Russian as well as the patriotic forces. For instance, the former claim that Ukraine is ruled by the West and the chief of the State cannot influence the country’s political course. The right-wing politicians like Petro Poroshenko are displeased with Zelenskyy too. They regard the President’s attempt to break the stalemate in talks on Donbas as treachery and the implementation of perfidious plans of Moscow.
It should be noted that according to the recent sociological studies Volodymyr Zelenskyy continues to have a sufficiently high level of trust of his electors. For instance, the Kyiv International Institute reports that today 44 percent of Ukrainians support Zelenskyy. In the opinion of analysts, people do not see an alternative to the current President and therefore are not ready to put their trust in other politicians. At the same time, they stress that if in 2019 Volodymyr Zelenskyy was “a political surprise” to everyone then the year 2020 has become a surprise to him. Regrettably, the existing Ukrainian problems are compounded by the coronavirus pandemic and the approaching global economic crisis. It is unclear so far whether the President and his team will be able to meet all these challenges.
The newspaper Holos Ukrainy
