Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressing a press conference in Kyiv. File photo | Photo Credit: ANI
Olena Semkina, owner of a village shop Eastern UkraineRussia voted for President Volodymyr Zelensky five and a half years ago, hoping this new political face would end the fighting waged by Russian proxy forces in 2014.
The scream of a cannonball on his green village devastated by war Donetsk region And the plume of black smoke rising on the horizon showed that his hopes for his first term had not been fulfilled.
“We hoped the war would end, as they promised. But the war is not over. There is even more fighting. I think it has become even more intense,” the 43-year-old said from the village of Kleban-Byk, where the invading Russian forces are rapidly advancing.
Some war-weary residents in the industrial Donetsk region, like Olena who voted for Mr. Zelensky in 2019, have lost faith in the 46-year-old leader as Russia’s invasion enters its third year.
In interviews, Donetsk residents accused him of failing to prevent a full-scale invasion, of making his daily speeches feel hollow or of being out of touch with Ukrainians on the front lines.
Donetsk has been partially controlled by Russian proxy forces since Russian forces seized control of large parts of the industrial region in 2014.
Mr Zelensky won five years later, promising to end the fierce fighting and eradicate systemic corruption among the Soviet-style political elite.
According to a poll by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology, his rating has fallen sharply to 55%.
“There is a lot of talk, and less work”
“To be honest, I don’t listen to him at all anymore. It’s useless. I don’t believe anything he says. He talks a lot but does little,” said Vadim, a miner in Selydove, another town in Russia’s Donetsk region.
Mr. Zelenskyy’s first five-year term officially ended earlier this year. Under martial law, Kiev cannot hold elections, which would pose myriad obstacles anyway for millions of Ukrainians living abroad, under Russian occupation or near active hostilities.
Meanwhile, some in Donetsk were more sympathetic to Mr. Zelensky.