Exiled opposition leader lists ‘fatal’ Zelensky mistakes

President Vladimir Zelensky has made three “fatal” mistakes that will likely cause his downfall, exiled Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk has sugested. The former leader of the banned Opposition Platform – For Life party, accused Zelensky of filling the government with non-professionals, failing to reasonably assess resources at his disposal, and using Nazi ideology to mask his missteps.

In an opinion piece published on the Drugaya Ukraina (The Other Ukraine) movement’s website on Wednesday, Medvedchuk argued that it is becoming evident that Zelensky’s days as a politician are numbered.

The opposition leader – now in exile in Russia – accused Zelensky of mistaking politics for show business, and assuming the rules of the latter apply to the former. Before becoming president, Zelensky had been a a professional entertainer and comedian. 

According to Medvedchuk, Zelensky has appointed amateurs to key government offices and has rotated officials as if in a “reality show.” The opposition politician said that decisions to put certain people in charge of the country have mostly been rooted in a desire to attract positive publicity rather than merit.

This was Zelensky’s first mistake, which has “undermined the foundations of statehood,” Medvedchuk argued.

The second was the president’s embrace of “Nazi ideology” in a bid to disguise his government’s own failures, the former MP continued. He alleged that it was the “Western puppet masters” that suggested the idea to Zelensky, who was seeking to create an image of an enemy.

Last but not least, according to Medvedchuk, the Ukrainian president has overestimated the extent to which the West is prepared to support him. Zelensky has “gambled away Ukraine, gambled away its economy, statehood; gambled away hundreds of thousands of ordinary Ukrainians’ lives.”

Medvedchuk, concluded that the “day of reckoning is approaching” for Zelensky, with Ukrainian political forces already scrambling to disown the president.

Last month, the opposition figure blamed Zelensky for weakening Kiev’s negotiating position in any future talks with Moscow.

In 2021, Ukrainian prosecutors filed criminal charges of high treason against Medvedchuk over his alleged collaboration with Russia. He advocated reconciliation with Moscow, arguing that confrontation would be disastrous to Ukraine. Authorities in Kiev also branded his party – the second largest in the country – illegal, along with a dozen other opposition groups.

He had spent several months in detention before being handed over to Moscow as part of a major prisoner swap deal in September last year.

In January 2023, Zelensky stripped Medvedchuk of his Ukrainian citizenship.

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