Viktor Medvedchuk claims the Ukrainian president has relied on amateurs, overestimated Western aid, and exploited Nazi ideology
President Vladimir Zelensky has made three “fatal” mistakes that will likely cause his downfall, exiled Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Medvedchuk has opined. The former lawmaker 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 figure – now in exile in Russia – claimed that the Ukrainian head of state, who had previously been a professional entertainer and comedian, badly miscalculated his strategy because he believed that the same rules apply in politics as in show business.
According to Medvedchuk, Zelensky has appointed amateurs to key government offices and has conducted officials’ rotation as if in a “reality show.” The opposition politician opined that his decisions to put certain people in charge of the country have mostly been not merit-based but rather rooted in a desire to attract positive publicity.
This was Zelensky’s first mistake, which has “undermined the foundations of statehood,” Medvedchuk argued.
The second one was the president’s embrace of the “Nazi ideology” in a bid to disguise his government’s own failures, the former MP continued. He alleged that it was the “West 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 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,” the politician wrote.
Medvedchuk, the former leader of the banned Opposition Platform – For Life party, 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 for reconciling with Moscow, arguing that the escalating confrontation would be disastrous to Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities also branded his party – the second largest in the country – illegal, along with a dozen other groups that opposed the Kiev authorities.
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.
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In January 2023, Zelensky stripped Medvedchuk of his Ukrainian citizenship.
