For over four years, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has enjoyed nearly unchallenged domestic support as his nation rallied to resist Russia’s full-scale invasion. The honeymoon from domestic politics ended definitively on Tuesday, however, when former defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov released a video calling for new elections to be held before the war ends. Soon after the video was posted online, Ukraine’s anti-corruption organization NABU raided the office of a close Zelensky aide, who was then fired from her position, the latest presidential confidant to be embroiled by scandal.
Taken together, the picture is a worrisome one for Ukraine’s partners and its populace. Coming at a time when optimism about Ukraine’s military prospects was at its peak, these domestic political fractures already seem to have derailed the summer’s momentum. Worse, they threaten to distract from efforts to end the war.
For Kyiv’s strongest backers in Europe, the slow creep of corruption investigations closer to Zelensky himself, coupled with the Ukrainian president’s erratic and self-serving political moves, must be concerning. European leaders have long framed their support for Ukraine as both justified and morally right, assistance to a thriving democracy in the face of authoritarian aggression. According to their narrative, Zelensky is a faithful steward of the hundreds of billions of euros that European countries have funneled into Ukraine. They rarely criticize his motives and accept even his most controversial political and military decisions with little pushback.
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