Vladimir Putin’s hopes of wearing Ukraine down in a war of attrition are no longer far-fetched. The country feels fragile, like it did in February 2022. Back then, Ukrainians rallied behind a president who stayed and shared a conviction that victory was possible. Today many are wondering whether defeat and the end of Ukraine’s statehood are drawing nearer than anyone would like to admit. A corruption scandal is engulfing Volodymyr Zelensky’s government. Russia is making gains on the battlefield.
Ukraine’s tragedy is not only that Zelensky’s close associates were leeching off 15 per cent from contracts meant to fortify critical energy infrastructure, stealing from the country £76 million at the very least. Zelensky’s feeble response has further sapped already low morale and shattered the trust that tired Ukrainians still had in their leader. The president who once swiftly removed tainted officials who stood in the way of Ukraine’s survival against Russian aggression hesitated about casting aside his appointees and former business partners for the sake of the country. Zelensky’s attempt to curb the independence of anti-corruption bodies in July, and the fact that those same agencies are now investigating his close friends, made Ukrainians ask themselves whether the president they once trusted to put Ukraine first still deserves their support.
There is no evidence Zelensky was involved in the graft scheme, or even aware of it, but his once-immovable approval ratings, which sat above 60 per cent for nearly four years of the full-scale war, could go into freefall unless he takes harsh steps to cut off the corrupted limb in his government. When the scandal erupted, Zelensky chose the wrong path, going on a tour to the frontline cities of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to pose for photographs hugging children in bomb shelters instead of firing everyone involved. The pitiful attempt to rescue his sinking popularity with a message of unity repulsed Ukrainians who don’t know whether they will still be alive tomorrow.
Instead of spending this week abroad, as far as possible from the political disaster unravelling at home, Zelensky should be in Kyiv, talking to his own party and opposition, who say that the President’s order to dismiss compromised justice and energy ministers and sanction Timur Mindich, the chief organiser of the scheme who fled the country just four hours before detectives arrived at his Kyiv apartment, is too little, too late. Dozens of MPs from different political parties are demanding the resignation of Zelensky’s new cabinet, appointed in the summer. Petro Poroshenko, the former president and leader of Ukraine’s largest opposition party, declared he had already gathered more than 50 signatures to make that happen.
Poroshenko demands that Zelensky form a coalition of ‘national unity’ that would bring together the representatives of all parties. The argument is that the President has run out of competent and respectable people to appoint after six and a half years in office. ‘We won’t back this attempt to let off steam to preserve the corruption vertical. We strongly call for an end to this Ali Baba government,’ Poroshenko said. Andriy Yermak, the head of the President’s Office, is allegedly referred to as ‘Ali Baba’ on recordings released by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau.
Dismissing Yermak, the President’s right-hand man who is deeply unpopular among Ukrainians, should be Zelensky’s first step to restore his reputation at home and abroad. Ukraine’s allies in Brussels and Washington have repeatedly expressed concerns about Yermak’s enormous power, while activists in Kyiv say it was he who orchestrated the July attack against the country’s anti-corruption agencies. The lawmakers from Zelensky’s own party, whose blind obedience to the President’s orders has cost them their credibility, are also now demanding Yermak be fired. ‘I believe that Yermak’s resignation would indeed defuse the current frenzy around the government… Today, many members of Servant of the People were openly discussing that Mr Yermak should go’, said Fedir Venislavsky, Zelensky’s MP.
This is an enemy that can break the country from within
Nikita Poturaev, another of Zelensky’s MPs, issued a statement this morning on behalf of a group within Servant of the People, urging all pro-Ukrainian factions and parliamentary groups to begin talks immediately on forming a new coalition. ‘Such government should be formed without party quotas, backroom agreements and “own people” and composed of specialists with an impeccable reputation and proven management experience in relevant areas,’ the statement read. If Zelensky accepts the proposal, the Ukrainian government has a real chance to move away from being a hand tool of the President’s Office and return to the parliamentary-presidential republic, as defined in the constitution.
Despite the war, Ukraine must continue fighting corruption, which in wartime leads not to potholes in the roads, but a trail of bodies and lost cities. This is an enemy that can break the country from within far faster than Putin ever could, and it is Zelensky’s job to prevent it from happening. As for Ukraine’s allies, who may now question whether the country is still worth their support, they should remember that the crimes of a few in power cannot be allowed to decide the fate of millions of Ukrainians fighting for their survival. Ukraine is bigger than anyone in the President’s Office, including Zelensky himself.
Comments