In 2019, Ukraine underwent another revolution of sorts. Television comedian and successful businessman Volodymyr Zelensky won power in the March-April presidential elections, soundly defeating then-President Petro Poroshenko.
Zelensky followed the script of his popular television series, Servant of the People, where he played a nobody becoming president of Ukraine.
But real life followed an even more enthralling scenario. Zelensky’s party, a group of hastily assembled newcomers, then won early parliamentary election in July, giving the novice president unprecedented political power.
Zelensky’s mandate is broad, but so is the daunting list of issues he has to solve, including corruption, weak rule of law, a struggling economy and Russia’s seemingly endless war in Donbas. His performance will determine whether Ukraine becomes a functioning democracy on the path to European Union and NATO membership or remains mired in its swamp of oligarchic rule.
Memorable campaign
Riding his television fame and wielding a savvy social media campaign, Zelensky cashed in on the disaffection of ordinary Ukrainians with empty promises from a rotating cohort of old politicians.
Zelensky disrupted the rules of the game, leaving his more experienced competitors far behind in polls with their bused-in supporters for rallies and their standard appearances on political talk shows.
Ukraine’s presidential campaign captured international headlines, as Zelensky and Poroshenko challenged each other to a televised debate at Kyiv’s Olimpiysky Stadium. Before the debate, they even had their blood drawn in front of the cameras to prove they don’t take drugs. And they finally faced off in verbal duel in front of thousands of viewers on April 19.
New ruling class
Elected on anti-elite sentiment as a new face from the people, Zelensky dissolved the old parliament during his inauguration speech and brought with him a fresh ruling class of political newbies like himself.
Many established parties didn’t make it into the new parliament. Now, 80% of lawmakers have no prior political experience. So powerful was Zelensky’s Servant of the People brand that it left no chance for many political heavyweights in single-member districts either.
Zelensky’s administration mostly consists of his old friends and colleagues from the entertainment industry. His government is young reformist technocrats. His faction is a hybrid mix of no-names, prominent experts, controversial public figures and celebrities.
That diverse faction — under a common brand, but not shared values — has already begun showing signs of fracture, prompting talk that parliament could be dissolved early.
Kolomoisky’s comeback
Zelensky’s rapid climb to the top of the political ladder also brought back billionaire oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who had lived in self-imposed exile between Switzerland and Israel under Poroshenko’s rule.
The two men have been well acquainted for years: Zelensky produced comedy shows and television series for Kolomoisky’s TV channel 1+1. During the election campaign, Zelensky enjoyed the support of 1+1, which fueled public concerns over the oligarch’s influence.
Suspicions still haunt Zelensky in his presidency. Kolomoisky returned to Ukraine days before the new president was sworn in and spent the following months making scandalous claims to journalists. One of them was that he will get back the nation’s largest bank, PrivatBank, which was nationalized and recapitalized by the government in 2016, costing taxpayers $5.5 billion.
The prospect of Kolomoisky’s resurgence alarms investors and international donors. Zelensky and his government have tried to convince the public that he is independent of Kolomoisky and that the billionaire will never regain control of PrivatBank. Now the final word belongs to the courts.
Trump impeachment
On July 25, a few days after Zelensky’s party won the parliamentary elections, he received a call from U. S. President Donald Trump.
The details of that now-fateful phone call went public three months later after a whistleblower complaint set the ground for the impeachment process against Trump. In the call, the U.S.
president asked his Ukrainian counterpart “for a favor”: to dig up dirt on ex-U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden and to investigate whether Ukraine interfered on behalf of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
In the following months, top diplomats and State Department officials testified before House of Representatives lawmakers, exposing a back-channel foreign policy carried out by some members of the Trump administration and led by Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.
The U. S. public got a crash course in the intricacies of Ukrainian politics. Giuliani sourced his false narratives — which he’s still pushing through right-wing media — from a few aggrieved former prosecutors and dubious lawmakers in Ukraine.
Trump has been impeached by the Democratic-controlled House for abuse of power and obstructing Congress. It’s not clear when the will stand the trial in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Zelensky’s administration has generally sought to distance itself from the U.S. domestic scandal, fearing the loss of Ukraine’s coveted bipartisan support in Congress.
Peace talks resume
Bringing peace to Ukraine’s war-torn east was one of Zelensky’s electoral promises.
In the six months that Zelensky has been in office, there have been a number of important developments in a bid to advance long-stalled peace agreements. First, Ukraine and Russia exchanged a total of 70 political prisoners in the first major swap since the beginning of the war. Among them were Oleg Sentsov, Roman Suchenko, 24 sailors, and nine other prisoners who became symbols of Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression.
Then, the pedestrian bridge in Stanytsia Luhanska was repaired, easing the commute across the front line for residents of the war zone. Next, the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed militants withdrew their forces at three locations on the front line.
This preceded the first Normandy summit of leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany, and France in over three years. The four leaders agreed on a plan to move forward: the Steinmeier Formula, the peace plan that must be incorporated into Ukrainian legislation.
According to it, Ukraine will grant the now-occupied parts of the Donbas a self-governance status — but only after they hold free elections under Ukrainian law and monitored by OSCE observers. Additionally, all armed groups and weaponry must be withdrawn from the area.
Zelensky called his debut face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin “a draw.” While he seems to be genuinely willing to negotiate the Minsk agreements, the ball is, unfortunately, in Russia’s court.
Pushing for delayed reforms
Shortly before Zelensky headed to Paris for his first meeting with Putin, the International Monetary Fund approved a new $5.5-billion three-year loan program for Ukraine.
Zelensky has been praised by international partners for bringing in some reputable officials and passing some important anti-corruption legislation.
But amid massive public and political resistance to some of the reforms, Zelensky seems to have started to counterbalance. After lawmakers lifted parliamentary immunity, they also made it harder for law enforcement to prosecute them. After passing a hugely unpopular law on farmland sales in the first reading, the president gave in to protesters’ demands and promised to hold a referendum on whether foreigners should be allowed to buy land. He also agreed to limit the size of land plots for sale.
