This article was originally published by Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge.
While the war-weary US and European populations have long ago lost their fascination with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, which was on display during his September trip to Washington—largely met with little enthusiasm even among Congressional leaders—it is less common for the mainstream media to admit his star power has completely faded.
However, a fresh assessment in Britain’s The Times newspaper details the extent to which there’s been a general “disenchantment” with him both at home and abroad as he’s clearly lost his “shine”.
Amid steady Russian military gains in the east, and under pressure by Washington drop the military enlistment age from 25 to 18 (which would be hugely unpopular among Ukrainians), if a presidential vote were held tomorrow Zelensky would very likely lose.
Youngest Ukrainian president ever, via AFP/Getty Images
“Just 16 percent would vote to re-elect him for a second term, according to an opinion poll of 1,200 Ukrainians published this week by the Social Monitoring Centre in Kyiv,” The Times writes. “The poll, the most comprehensive study of electoral preferences since the invasion began in 2022, also found that about 60 percent would prefer Zelensky not to even stand for re-election.”
The publication comments bluntly that this shows “Zelensky’s popularity is fading” and the reality is “very few Ukrainians envision him as their next president.“
Perhaps he himself is fully aware of this, after having canceled scheduled elections last spring, and extending indefinitely the maintenance of martial law across the country which prevents a valid election from taking place.
On the inevitability of Zelensky’s popularity fading and plummeting, The Times observes further:
It was perhaps inevitable that Zelensky’s leadership would lose its shine. No Ukrainian president apart from Leonid Kuchma, whose 1999 re-election was marred by suspicions of vote fraud, has secured a second term since the country gained independence from the Soviet Union.
“Maintaining popularity in this country is incredibly challenging, particularly during a difficult war,” Ponomarenko said. “It is a pattern we’ve seen before. We elect a new ‘saviour of the nation’ as president with sky-high approval ratings, quickly grow disillusioned and, in the best case, ensure their landslide defeat in the next election.”
However, the “next election” may be further away than ever, as Zelensky is unlikely to relinquish power as long as the war with Russia continues. If a full truce is eventually secured, he may actually step down soon afterward.
As for the aforementioned poll and potential rivals to the presidency, the same publication notes that “ahead of Zelensky, with 27 percent was Valery Zaluzhny, the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces who has served as the ambassador to Britain since July.”
But again, all of this is reason enough to believe that Zelensky will keep pushing elections further and further down the road, and with no clear timeline of lifting martial law in the war-ravaged nation. Currently, he’s still going all-in with pressing Western allies for NATO membership.
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