Volodymyr Petrov , Oleksiy Sorokin
President Volodymyr Zelensky enjoys strong support, according to the latest polling. Almost 40% of Ukrainians would vote for him again and 68% are satisfied with his performance during his first year in office.
But not everyone is happy with the Ukrainian president.
On May 24, a few thousand protesters gathered on Maidan Nezelezhnosti in downtown Kyiv to express their dissatisfaction with the current authorities.
The protesters argued that the president isn’t doing a good job representing Ukraine’s interests in bilateral talks with Russia, which has waged war against Ukraine for six years. Since 2014, Russia has occupied the Crimean peninsula and parts of the eastern Donbas region. Its aggression has led to more than 13,000 deaths.
The protests on Maidan were organized by the “Capitulation Resistance Movement,” which was created in October 2019 after another protest against Zelensky.
Those first protests were a reaction to Zelensky’s decision to agree to the Steinmeier Formula, which envisages granting the occupied areas of the eastern Donbas a special self-governing status after they hold transparent local elections under Ukrainian law.
Protesters claimed that such elections would legitimize Russian-led militants currently occupying the region. Ukrainian authorities stated that, for the elections to take place, the militants would have to disarm. This hasn’t happened, and Russia’s war has killed 32 Ukrainian soldiers since Jan. 1.
During the May 24 protest, demonstrators demanded the firing of Andriy Yermak, the president’s chief of staff. In late March, Yermak and his brother were accused of taking part in a corruption scheme.
Lawmaker Geo Leros, who represents Zelensky’s 248-member Servant of the People party in parliament, published a series of video recordings in which Yermak’s brother appeared to discuss selling government posts for money with possible “buyers.”
The Yermak brothers denied their involvement in any illegal activity. An investigation by the National Police is currently ongoing.
Zelensky sided with his chief of staff. During a press conference held on May 20, Zelensky said that Yermak brothers are clean of any corruption.
“For me, this case is shallow. I know who created these tapes for blackmail purposes to make me fire Yermak,” Zelensky said.
