As the world desperately searches for decent, public male role models for its sons, the stories of presidents Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Donald Trump are a useful study in contrasts.
The sages who nod approvingly at Trump’s Chauncey Gardiner approach to conflict resolution – “but he asks all the right questions, right?” – might recall how the aspiring presidential candidate responded to Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. He praised Putin for his handling of the land grab from a sovereign state and predicted that “the rest of Ukraine will fall ... fairly quickly”.
In 2019, when the fledgling president Zelenskiy sought vital American backup to stop the grinding war engineered by Putin in eastern Ukraine, president Trump threatened to withhold a crucial $400 million-worth of congressionally mandated military aid unless Zelenskiy would “do us a favour” and announce a corruption investigation into Joe Biden and his family.
Even in his desperation, Zelenskiy refused. That vomitous saga culminated in Trump’s first impeachment and a deep grudge against the Ukrainian upstart. But it gave a hint of Zelenskiy’s spirit.
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What now for Ukraine as Trump turns on Zelenskiy
When future historians are poring over the February night in 2022 that changed Europe, they will find much to analyse in the short, poignant video of Zelenskiy’s attempt to address the Russian people over Putin’s head.
Days earlier, Putin had questioned Ukraine’s right to exist and declared two Ukrainian regions to be autonomous. More than 100,000 Russian soldiers with tanks and artillery were massed on the border a few hours from Kyiv. As Europe quaked, Trump’s response was unadulterated glee.
“ ... I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of Ukraine – of Ukraine – Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. He used the word ‘independent’ and ‘we’re gonna go out and we’re gonna go in and we’re gonna help keep peace’. You gotta say that’s pretty savvy ... By the way this never would have happened with us. Had I been in office, not even thinkable. This would never have happened.”
In fact, eastern Ukraine was burning right through his first term of office. Putin had a pattern. Trump knew all about it, to the last dollar.
The speech to the Russian people is one of the last times Zelenskiy was seen in a suit. Joe Biden’s CIA director had secretly visited Kyiv to warn that Russia was planning to assassinate him. World leaders offered to arrange his escape, anticipating a swift collapse of the Ukrainian state.
This was the context of Zelenskiy’s desperate last-ditch plea to the Russian people. No Stop the War activist could have delivered an appeal with more urgency or emotion.
The draft US ‘peace plan’ – gimme $500 billion of your rare earth minerals, oil, gas and port earnings, or we’ll abandon you to the occupying war criminal – reads like a mafia extortion scene
“Today I initiated a call with the president of the Russian Federation. The result? Silence. Though the silence should be in Donbas. We know for sure that we don’t need this war. Not a cold war, not a hot war, not a hybrid war ...”
War brings pain, dirt, blood, and tens of thousands of deaths, he said. “People lose money, reputation, quality of life. They lose freedom. But the main thing is that people lose their loved ones, they lose themselves ... Who can prevent all this from happening? The people ... Just as much as the people in Ukraine, no matter how much they try to convince you of the opposite ... Do Russians want the war? I would like to know the answer – but the answer depends only on you, citizens of the Russian Federation. Thank you.”
A few hours later, Russian troops flooded across the borders. Assassins combed Kyiv for Zelenskiy while Russia claimed he had fled to Poland. In that hopeless moment, Zelenskiy went on to the dark, empty streets of Kyiv with a camera and a few government colleagues, a slight figure in khaki green without bombast or flag-waving, to reassure his people, “we’re all still here”.
The moral contrast between Zelenskiy and Trump is boundless. Trump has lied that the Ukrainian president is a dictator (the Ukrainian constitution prohibits holding elections in wartime), lied about his approval rating, lied about the extent of European funding (the clips of president Macron fact-checking him live on Monday are worth a cheer) and about previous negotiations. The draft US “peace plan” – gimme $500 billion of your rare earth minerals, oil, gas and port earnings, or we’ll abandon you to the occupying war criminal – reads like a mafia extortion scene. Zelenskiy resisted: “I can’t sell our state.”
[ The Russian over-50s fighting and dying in UkraineOpens in new window ]
Last week Ukraine was told it faced imminent shut-off of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet system – critical to military communications, and funded by Poland – if it did not reach a minerals deal, according to Reuters. It seemed like rock bottom.
It wasn’t. On Monday came the White House’s stunning rejection of a UN resolution about the violation of Ukraine which saw it joining regimes such as Russia, Belarus and North Korea while even Iran and China abstained.
Meanwhile, Zelenskiy has offered to step down in exchange for Nato membership or if it brings peace. The ultimate difference between them is that he embodies the bravery and sacrifice of his people.
With Trump, it is always “I” – “I am the only one who can save this nation” – the monstrous ego who practised his snarling mugshot for days and hangs it outside his office. With Zelenskiy it is always “we”, a spirit signalled in his inauguration speech when he asked that no portraits of him should be displayed in Ukrainian homes. “Put photographs of your children there, instead. And before making any decision, look them in the eyes.”
