Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s victory in Ukraine’s April 21 presidential election has raised more than a few eyebrows around the world.
The political newcomer, businessman and comedic actor was a relative unknown on the global stage until very recently. In Ukraine, however, he took 73 percent of the vote to trounce incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, who received only 25 percent.
But outside the country, his name hardly rang any bells before the presidential vote. Now that he has won, however, the president-elect is making headlines everywhere.
Major newspapers, important officials and Ukraine observers have expressed either surprise or understanding at the result. Others have called for patience and support for Zelenskiy as he starts to build his administration.
The Ukrainian gamble
“What history will remember is that Ukrainians, by electing a total stranger (to politics), preferred taking a leap of faith rather than to continue on the same path with a political class discredited by years of breach of public trust,” writes Benoit Vitkine for Le Monde.
In other words, Ukrainians are not afraid to take potentially considerable risks to upend the status quo – a concept that could be familiar to those French citizens who have been donning yellow vests throughout that country’s months-long protest movement.
The international press seems to primarily be portraying Zelenskiy as a comedian and a political neophyte – which he is. But it has also displayed understanding and even sympathy for Ukrainian voters and their “frustration with politics as usual,” as the Sydney Morning Herald wrote.
The New York Times explains that reality another way: “After five years of grinding war with Russian proxies in the east of Ukraine, voters appeared to send a signal that they were more concerned with the internal menaces of corruption and poverty,” Andrew Higgins and Iulia Mendel wrote.
Poroshenko is broadly viewed as having several key accomplishments, including achievement of an important visa-free regime with Europe and the implementation of the country’s free-trade agreement with that bloc. He also played an important role in rebuilding the Ukrainian army, gaining independence from Moscow for the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and ensuring free and fair elections. But not enough Ukrainian citizens were convinced he was worthy of re-election.
Shaun Walker from the Guardian emphasized that Poroshenko “promised Ukrainians they would ‘live in a new way,’ but the pace of change has been too slow for many.”
Russia in the background
Ukraine has come a long way from its Soviet past, and the presidential debate organized in Kyiv’s Olimpiyskiy Stadium on April 19 in front of some 20,000 people illustrates just how dynamic and vibrant its democracy is becoming – something which stands in stark contrast with its eastern neighbor: Russia.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov explained that Russian President Vladimir Putin decided not to congratulate Zelenskiy just yet.
Based upon a statement by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, this is probably because Russia is waiting to see if the relationship of the two neighbors will improve with a new Ukrainian head of state.
Medvedev added that he wished the president-elect “common sense, as well as to understand the inherent value of relations” between Ukraine and Russia.
Vladimir Ruvinsky praised the electoral process and described a Russian population envious of Ukraine in an opinion piece for the Russian newspapers The Moscow Times and Vedomoisti, illustrating a substantial difference between the Russian people and their leadership.
Ruvinsky could not help but note how a debate like the one that occurred at Olimpiyskiy Stadium would never occur in Russia because Vladimir Putin finds it “useless… (and) what would be the point of such a debate (anyway) if the winner has already been decided?”
As Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum noted, the victory of Zelenskiy – who was born to a Jewish family in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking east – debunks the Russian rhetoric of the past 5 years, according to which Ukraine was nothing but a state in decay led by an anti-Semitic and fascist government that seized power through a coup d’état.
“How will Sputnik and RT explain this (?),” Applebaum pondered.
Western support
All eyes were indeed on Ukraine as people filled their ballots to decide the future of their nation, which has received considerable western support since the EuroMaidan Revolution in 2014, a popular uprising that forced Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych from office and into exile.
The U.S. Department of State’s spokesperson, Morgan Ortagus, acclaimed what she saw as a “peaceful and competitive” election in an official statement.
Rosalba Castelletti from Italian newspaper La Reppublica did not forget to mention the international dimension of the event, saying that “the vote is crucial… not only for the country, but also for NATO and the European Union.”
The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, assured that Zelenskiy could “count on EU’s strong support to Ukraine on its reform path, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.”
Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Parliament and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau congratulated Zelenskiy too, but Juncker went a step further in highlighting Ukraine’s “strong attachment to democracy” as “a major achievement in the complex political, economic and security environment.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May took to Twitter to congratulate the president-elect and remind the public that “Ukraine’s stability is essential for Europe’s Security.”
Both presidents Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron have called Zelenskiy to congratulate him, according to the president-elect’s team.
Michael Carpenter – the senior director of the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement – called for support for Zelenskiy from the international community in an opinion piece published by the Washington Post: “Western leaders should take Zelenskiy under their wing, provide strategic and technical advice, and offer to lend policy advisers who can offer their professional recommendations on defense reform, international diplomacy, legal questions and economic issues.“
What the Ukrainian elections have managed to do is educate the world a little more about the country and its people’s wishes. And while not everyone may understand the choice of Zelenskiy, officials stand ready to work with him.
In any event, the world is paying closer attention now.
