Instead of a positive PR, the Ukrainian president received a public image of the chaos prevailing in the country’s government.
What made it ironic is that last year Zelensky personally presented its author Simon Shuster with the Ukraine’s Order “For the Services” of the third degree.
The full article is a bit long, but here are some eye-catching points in Shuster’s own words:
I asked one member of his circle how the President was feeling. The response came without a second’s hesitation: “Angry.”
“He deludes himself,” one of his closest aides tells me in frustration. “We’re out of options. We’re not winning. But try telling him that.”
In recent months, the issue of corruption has strained Zelensky’s relationship with many of his allies. One of the aides who traveled with Zelensky to the US told me these proposals targeted the very top of the state hierarchy. “These were not suggestions,” says another presidential adviser. “These were conditions.”
Amid all the pressure to root out corruption, I assumed, perhaps naively, that officials in Ukraine would think twice before taking a bribe or pocketing state funds. But when I made this point to a top presidential adviser in early October, he asked me to turn off my audio recorder so he could speak more freely. “Simon, you’re mistaken,” he says. “People are stealing like there’s no tomorrow.”
On top of that, the Ukrainian publication Espresso, reacting to this material, summarizes that Zelensky is no longer trusted in the West – his credibility has been exhausted.
Overall, rather unusual shift