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That's because of Zelenskyy and what he represents. Usually, you'd expect a state like Ukraine (ex Sowjet) to be corrupt and run by oligarchs with no support b

That's because of Zelenskyy and what he represents. Usually, you'd expect a state like Ukraine (ex Sowjet) to be corrupt and run by oligarchs with no support by the populace. In that situation, Russia would waltz in, the old depot would flee the country, Russia would isntall a puppet and the populace would be indefferent to it, since it's just more of the same shit. But Zelenskyy was serious in cleaning up the Ukraine, he is not fleeing and he is uniting the nation. This was Putin's big mistake. He believed he could scare away a greedy despot to replace him with another one. Instead, the Ukraine has a true leader and developed a real national identity. For Putin, this is a nightmare. For the west, we finally have someone worth supporting (often we have the issue that we don't know how is the bad and the good guy, see Syria, Mali). I have nothing to prove it, this is just speculation, taken from some tweets I saw. It makes sense to me, but I have no social insights. This whole thing could have looked very different under any of the former leaders of the Ukraine.

pydry 5y ago
He had an approval rate of 28% and a disapproval rate of 57% in October. The west is singing his praises right now, but this isnt necessarily reflective of what Ukrainians think.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  For now he's walking around in a flak jacket with an AK and I suspect that if they did a poll today the numbers would come out a bit different.
  - sergiomattei 5y ago
    Polling numbers indicate 96% support.
    - jacquesm 5y ago
      Not surprised. Wonder what the real figures on Putin are.
  - megous 5y ago
    He certainly managed to gather quite a lot of support outside Ukraine, quite quickly. I guess that's no easy feat either.
  - verve_rat 5y ago
    They did. 90%.
fuoqi 5y ago
>But Zelenskyy was serious in cleaning up the Ukraine, he is not fleeing and he is uniting the nation. So much BS... He literally done 180 on his election promises, done a lot of unconstitutional moves, and his public support was continuously dropping to the point of losing to Poroshenko on hypothetical elections.
tootie 5y ago
Ukraine was (and still is) quite corrupt. They ran their president out of town on a rail in 2014 because he was massively corrupt. To the point of using government funds to build a private zoo at his house. Zelensky made his name by portraying an everyman who lucks his way into the presidency by vowing to fight corruption and somehow life imitated art. He was clearly inexperience and in over his head, but his character and showmanship are paying huge dividends right now. And to just because we have to make everything about US politics, the corrupt leader who was run out of town was elected with the assistance of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates who both ended up working on the Trump campaign less than two years after their cash cow was exiled to Russia.
verisimi 5y ago
> But Zelenskyy was serious in cleaning up the Ukraine, he is not fleeing and he is uniting the nation. He's not that clean himself, given that he was mentioned as holding offshore finances in the Pandora Papers leak. Also he invested in the production company (Kvartal 95) that then created the show 'Servant of the People' where he was shot to stardom playing the role of a teacher elected president. The company then also paid to create a real party named 'Servant of the People' and managed to get him elected as president for real!! https://www.occrp.org/en/the-pandora-papers/pandora-papers-reveal-offshore-holdings-of-ukrainian-president-and-his-inner-circle https://www.occrp.org/en/the-pandora-papers/pandora-papers-r... Where he got all that offshore money from is a question we can ponder. But it seems to me that he was primed for the position he is in.
- contingencies 5y ago
  You certainly can't believe everything you read on the internet, but apparently Zelenskyy met with Erik Prince who was up to his war profiteering self-serving crap. Zelenskyy subsequently aggressively moved forward with a plan to produce Turkish government manufactured drones (the ones you now see advertised in the war-media) and associated munitions within Ukraine, starting off with the purchase of a dozen for USD$70M (~USD$6M each). https://www.voltairenet.org/article215489.html https://www.voltairenet.org/article215489.html https://time.com/6144109/russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-viktor-medvedchuk/ https://time.com/6144109/russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-vikto... https://time.com/6076035/erik-prince-ukraine-private-army/ https://time.com/6076035/erik-prince-ukraine-private-army/ https://www.businessinsider.com/erik-prince-had-pitched-10-billion-private-army-in-ukraine-time https://www.businessinsider.com/erik-prince-had-pitched-10-b... Even though I am inclined to believe he is the lesser of two evils, it would seem that this war is in part being used as an advert for those munitions (see multiple videos released in the last 2 days from the drones). The Turkish OEM https://baykartech.com/en/uav/bayraktar-tb2/ https://baykartech.com/en/uav/bayraktar-tb2/ was founded by Selçuk Bayraktar, an MIT graduate returnee who married Turkish president Erdogan's youngest daughter in 2016. Its apparent exclusive armament is the Turkish government's own Roketsan brand munition https://www.roketsan.com.tr/en/products/mam-c-smart-micro-munition https://www.roketsan.com.tr/en/products/mam-c-smart-micro-mu... A UK entity accused Bayraktar of cloning their munitions rack design (the company denied the claim), and an Austrian motor manufacturer accused the company of redirecting their 100HP recreational aviation motors to military use. I'd be interested to read more from a local about any public statements and private funding and control around those deals. While he's certainly the lesser of two evils in this conflict, history shows us the politicians are often not as clean as they like to make out, it's not out of the question that Zelenskyy or his cronies could have an undeclared private stake in the business and thus be personally profiting from the war and its aftermath.
pphysch 5y ago
> But Zelenskyy was serious in cleaning up the Ukraine, he is not fleeing and he is uniting the nation. Totally ridiculous. Zelensky was selected as president for his acting skills, not management skills. He's as compromised as it gets. No responsible leader of a civilized nation would goad/force his people into picking up AKs in the face of a vastly superior professional military force. He would accept the loss, surrender, and save as many lives as possible. But Zelensky is not a responsible leader, he is a mad sociopath trying to save his own skin, because he knows he has no place in the world should his regime fall.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- verve_rat 5y ago
  Horse shit. It is not irresponsible for a leader to motivate a country's populous when that country is under attack. Are you saying that any population should just give up when someone else wants to occupy their home? No matter what might happen to them and their families anyway?
  - pphysch 5y ago
    You missed the part where Ukraine has literally 0% chance of winning. Most Russian troop brigades haven't even reached their destination and Russia hasn't yet deployed its fixed-wing aircraft. Zelensky is actively gambling his people's lives away. Because they aren't his constituents. His constituents are on another continent.
Razengan 5y ago
> Instead, the Ukraine has a true leader and developed a real national identity. Honestly curious: What has Ukraine’s president done in the past to show that he’s a good leader? The world barely even knew of him a few months ago, until every Western platform started deep-throating us to herald him as the second coming of Jesus in the last 2 weeks or so. The propaganda is at a bizarre level.
- tim333 5y ago
  I think the true leader stuff is mostly about how he's done since the invasion. And he seems to have done well there, no propaganda needed. (If you want bizarre propaganda try watching rt.com a bit - I did that last night - was quite bizarre).

pydry 5y ago

He had an approval rate of 28% and a disapproval rate of 57% in October. The west is singing his praises right now, but this isnt necessarily reflective of what Ukrainians think.

jacquesm 5y ago
For now he's walking around in a flak jacket with an AK and I suspect that if they did a poll today the numbers would come out a bit different.
- sergiomattei 5y ago
  Polling numbers indicate 96% support.
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    Not surprised. Wonder what the real figures on Putin are.
- megous 5y ago
  He certainly managed to gather quite a lot of support outside Ukraine, quite quickly. I guess that's no easy feat either.
- verve_rat 5y ago
  They did. 90%.

fuoqi 5y ago

>But Zelenskyy was serious in cleaning up the Ukraine, he is not fleeing and he is uniting the nation. So much BS... He literally done 180 on his election promises, done a lot of unconstitutional moves, and his public support was continuously dropping to the point of losing to Poroshenko on hypothetical elections.

tootie 5y ago

Ukraine was (and still is) quite corrupt. They ran their president out of town on a rail in 2014 because he was massively corrupt. To the point of using government funds to build a private zoo at his house. Zelensky made his name by portraying an everyman who lucks his way into the presidency by vowing to fight corruption and somehow life imitated art. He was clearly inexperience and in over his head, but his character and showmanship are paying huge dividends right now. And to just because we have to make everything about US politics, the corrupt leader who was run out of town was elected with the assistance of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates who both ended up working on the Trump campaign less than two years after their cash cow was exiled to Russia.

verisimi 5y ago

> But Zelenskyy was serious in cleaning up the Ukraine, he is not fleeing and he is uniting the nation. He's not that clean himself, given that he was mentioned as holding offshore finances in the Pandora Papers leak. Also he invested in the production company (Kvartal 95) that then created the show 'Servant of the People' where he was shot to stardom playing the role of a teacher elected president. The company then also paid to create a real party named 'Servant of the People' and managed to get him elected as president for real!! https://www.occrp.org/en/the-pandora-papers/pandora-papers-reveal-offshore-holdings-of-ukrainian-president-and-his-inner-circle https://www.occrp.org/en/the-pandora-papers/pandora-papers-r... Where he got all that offshore money from is a question we can ponder. But it seems to me that he was primed for the position he is in.

contingencies 5y ago
You certainly can't believe everything you read on the internet, but apparently Zelenskyy met with Erik Prince who was up to his war profiteering self-serving crap. Zelenskyy subsequently aggressively moved forward with a plan to produce Turkish government manufactured drones (the ones you now see advertised in the war-media) and associated munitions within Ukraine, starting off with the purchase of a dozen for USD$70M (~USD$6M each). https://www.voltairenet.org/article215489.html https://www.voltairenet.org/article215489.html https://time.com/6144109/russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-viktor-medvedchuk/ https://time.com/6144109/russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-vikto... https://time.com/6076035/erik-prince-ukraine-private-army/ https://time.com/6076035/erik-prince-ukraine-private-army/ https://www.businessinsider.com/erik-prince-had-pitched-10-billion-private-army-in-ukraine-time https://www.businessinsider.com/erik-prince-had-pitched-10-b... Even though I am inclined to believe he is the lesser of two evils, it would seem that this war is in part being used as an advert for those munitions (see multiple videos released in the last 2 days from the drones). The Turkish OEM https://baykartech.com/en/uav/bayraktar-tb2/ https://baykartech.com/en/uav/bayraktar-tb2/ was founded by Selçuk Bayraktar, an MIT graduate returnee who married Turkish president Erdogan's youngest daughter in 2016. Its apparent exclusive armament is the Turkish government's own Roketsan brand munition https://www.roketsan.com.tr/en/products/mam-c-smart-micro-munition https://www.roketsan.com.tr/en/products/mam-c-smart-micro-mu... A UK entity accused Bayraktar of cloning their munitions rack design (the company denied the claim), and an Austrian motor manufacturer accused the company of redirecting their 100HP recreational aviation motors to military use. I'd be interested to read more from a local about any public statements and private funding and control around those deals. While he's certainly the lesser of two evils in this conflict, history shows us the politicians are often not as clean as they like to make out, it's not out of the question that Zelenskyy or his cronies could have an undeclared private stake in the business and thus be personally profiting from the war and its aftermath.

pphysch 5y ago

> But Zelenskyy was serious in cleaning up the Ukraine, he is not fleeing and he is uniting the nation. Totally ridiculous. Zelensky was selected as president for his acting skills, not management skills. He's as compromised as it gets. No responsible leader of a civilized nation would goad/force his people into picking up AKs in the face of a vastly superior professional military force. He would accept the loss, surrender, and save as many lives as possible. But Zelensky is not a responsible leader, he is a mad sociopath trying to save his own skin, because he knows he has no place in the world should his regime fall.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
verve_rat 5y ago
Horse shit. It is not irresponsible for a leader to motivate a country's populous when that country is under attack. Are you saying that any population should just give up when someone else wants to occupy their home? No matter what might happen to them and their families anyway?
- pphysch 5y ago
  You missed the part where Ukraine has literally 0% chance of winning. Most Russian troop brigades haven't even reached their destination and Russia hasn't yet deployed its fixed-wing aircraft. Zelensky is actively gambling his people's lives away. Because they aren't his constituents. His constituents are on another continent.

Razengan 5y ago

> Instead, the Ukraine has a true leader and developed a real national identity. Honestly curious: What has Ukraine’s president done in the past to show that he’s a good leader? The world barely even knew of him a few months ago, until every Western platform started deep-throating us to herald him as the second coming of Jesus in the last 2 weeks or so. The propaganda is at a bizarre level.

tim333 5y ago
I think the true leader stuff is mostly about how he's done since the invasion. And he seems to have done well there, no propaganda needed. (If you want bizarre propaganda try watching rt.com a bit - I did that last night - was quite bizarre).