Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses a press conference n Kyiv. File photo
| Photo Credit: ANI
Olena Semykina, the owner of a village shop in east Ukraine, voted for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy five and a half year ago, hoping the fresh-faced political newcomer would end the fighting unleashed by Russian proxy forces in 2014.
The screech of an artillery shell over her leafy village in the war-battered Donetsk region and the plumes of dark smoke billowing on the horizon suggested that her hopes for his first term had fallen short.
“We expected the war to end, like he promised. But the war hasn’t ended. There’s even more fighting. It seems to me that it’s become even more intense,” the 43-year-old said from the village of Kleban-Byk, where invading Russian forces are fast approaching.
Across the industrial Donetsk region some war-fatigued residents, like Olena who voted for Mr. Zelenskyy in 2019, have lost faith in the 46-year-old leader as Russia’s invasion grinds through its third year.
In interviews, Donetsk residents blamed him for failing to prevent the full-scale invasion in the first place, for daily speeches that felt empty or for being out of touch with Ukrainians living near the front lines.
Donetsk has been partially controlled by Russian proxy forces since they wrested control over swathes of the industrial territory in 2014.
Mr. Zelenskyy swept to victory five years later, promising to end the bitter fighting and stamp out systemic corruption among Soviet-style political elites.
His ratings are falling precipitously , standing at 55%, according to polling by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.
‘Talks a lot, does little’
“To be honest, I don’t listen to him at all anymore. It’s pointless. I don’t believe in anything he says. He talks a lot but does little,” said Vadim, a miner in Selydove, another Donetsk-region town in Russia’s sights.
Mr. Zelenskyy’s first five-year term officially ended earlier this year. Under martial law, Kyiv cannot host elections, which would anyway face myriad obstacles with millions of Ukrainians abroad, living under Russian occupation or near active hostilities.
Meanwhile, Some in Donetsk were more sympathetic to Mr. Zelenskyy.
