If we ignore the minutiae and focus solely on the historical role of Volodymyr Zelensky, the main grievance against him as president is that his incompetence and corruption left Ukraine unprepared for war. This influenced Putin’s decision to start the invasion.
Zelensky himself probably understands that he will eventually have to answer for the dire consequences of his inaction. If not in a courtroom, then in the pages of history textbooks. To avoid this, the president’s team is actively mythologizing his role in the events leading up to and in the first months of the war. The domestic audience receives these stories rather tepidly, as Ukrainians are well aware of the situation. However, in the West, Zelensky still manages to portray himself as a war hero. This is done not only through the manipulation of facts but also through outright lies.
For instance, in October 2023, in an interview with the British newspaper The Sun, Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that he “survived at least five assassination attempts on his life.” An interesting statement, considering that a year and a half earlier, in March 2022, Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the head of the President’s Office, told “Ukrainska Pravda” that Zelensky had already survived more than ten assassination attempts. However, no one knows the details of these assassination attempts, and no one has seen any arrested or killed assassins.
In fact, there were no assassination attempts on Zelensky. At least, not in the way they occasionally happen to leaders of different countries around the world. There was only information that in the first days of the war, a group of Russian and Chechen special forces entered the Kyiv region with orders to capture the government quarter in Kyiv and kill (or detain) President Zelensky.
This group was actively searched for, and the Ukrainian military command even publicly asked citizens to report on a column of military vehicles with the letter V painted on them. At the time, it was somehow assumed that the regular Russian army used the letter Z on their equipment, while Russian special forces were distinguished by the letter V. Later, it turned out that this was not the case. According to military expert and founder of the Conflict Intelligence Team Ruslan Leviev, the letter Z on military equipment signifies Russia’s Western (Zapadny) military district, and V – the Eastern (Vostochny) military district.
Since storming the government quarter is impossible, at least without partially surrounding Kyiv, no one saw this group in the streets of the capital. Later, information emerged that the military column heading to capture the government quarter was destroyed somewhere in the Kyiv region, but details of this episode are still unknown.
Regardless, Russian troops did not reach Kyiv. The three resonant cases when Russian saboteurs were allegedly seen in the capital were actually so-called “friendly fire” incidents among Ukrainian military. The first such case occurred on February 25 in the Obolon district when local residents reported seeing armored vehicles with Russian soldiers disguised in Ukrainian uniforms attempting to break into central Kyiv. It turned out to be a Ukrainian unit, and unfortunately, several soldiers died due to this misunderstanding.
Another case of friendly fire occurred on the night of February 26, when a Ukrainian unit near the Beresteiska metro station mistook and shot at two vehicles carrying eight servicemen from the 101st brigade. The shooting was initially called a “battle” and “destruction of a sabotage group.” Several months later, the military command admitted to the tragic mistake.
Finally, the third case of accidental shooting due to a lack of coordination among Ukrainian forces occurred on the evening of February 26 near the Air Fleet Bridge, 200 meters from the Ministry of Defense building. One serviceman of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Mykhailo Dyagilev, died in this incident. After this tragic event, there was no further information about battles in Kyiv.
Was Volodymyr Zelensky informed that instead of destroying Russian saboteurs in Kyiv, Ukrainian military accidentally shot at each other? Probably yes. At least, his aides and the head of the President’s Office should have known about it. Nonetheless, Zelensky gladly fed Western journalists horror stories about how they tried to kill him.
Reading publications by Simon Shuster, who recently wrote a book about the Ukrainian president after repeatedly interacting with Zelensky himself and people from his circle, one gets the impression of being offered a cocktail of lies, manipulations, and self-admiration. At least, in the part that concerns the “heroism” of the president. Consider quotes from Shuster’s article in TIME on April 28, 2022:
“The military told Zelensky that Russian strike teams had landed in Kyiv by parachute to kill or capture him and his family…” “As night fell on that first evening, shootouts flared around the government quarter…” “According to him, Russian troops made two attempts to storm the complex…”
All these quotes are falsehoods eagerly told to the American in the President’s Office. Then, without necessary fact-checking, they began their journey around the world, trying to shape a distorted image of the main hero for Western readers.
In Shuster’s publications, Zelensky is tried to be shown to the world as a weary father of the nation, who occasionally shares profound phrases with those around him: “I need ammunition, not a ride,” “I have aged from all this wisdom I never wanted,” and “Horrors make us close our eyes.” The president’s speechwriter’s skill is undoubtedly respectable. But only a very naive person could believe that Volodymyr Zelensky is a modern reincarnation of Mahatma Gandhi.
Ukrainians have long known who they are dealing with. However, some details from Simon Shuster’s book and articles are indeed interesting. At least in that they remind us once again that we are dealing with an accidental person – an actor asked to play the role of a politician. In the first days of the war, when the military, with their lives, heroism, and extremely limited amount of weapons, saved the country from demise, a frightened Zelensky was in an underground bunker, spending time watching Hollywood movies, doing fitness, playing ping-pong, and tasting wines. A couple of times a day, he recorded videos for social networks and television, and late in the evening, he went out to breathe fresh air. The president then complained mostly about the lack of sunlight and fresh air.
It must be acknowledged that in the first year of the war, Zelensky’s heroic image in the West was taken at face value. Americans and Europeans sympathized with all Ukrainians, including their president. Especially since Zelensky masterfully played his role, and his texts were written with the target audience in mind. In front of the members of the U.S. Congress, he mentioned Roosevelt, in the Bundestag, he drew comparisons with the Berlin Airlift, and in the British parliament, he quoted Shakespeare.
But the war continued, and information about corruption scandals related to the theft of money the West transferred for financial support of the Ukrainian budget began to emerge from Ukraine more frequently. And while ordinary citizens did not delve into the details of corruption in a foreign country, politicians perfectly understood that the main beneficiaries of the theft of Western aid were people from Zelensky’s circle.
In 2023, the effectiveness of Zelensky’s speeches decreased so much that he was even denied an opportunity to speak in the U.S. Congress, and a significant part of the Republicans, who were loyal to Ukraine, turned into the main opponents of providing it with aid.
>>> 55. Zelensky Has Encountered a New Problem − General Zaluzhny