Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko harshly condemned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying he was turning the country into an authoritarian state no different than Russia, in the latest sign of internal political discord in the embattled country.
As Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive in Zaporizhzhia was met with disappointing results, cracks have begun to form in the country’s leadership, breaking the image of unity largely maintained since Russia’s invasion last year. The main fracture appears to be between the political and military leadership, led by Zelensky and Ukrainian chief of staff Valery Zaluzhny, respectively. In recent interviews, Klitschko threw his support behind Zaluzhny while denouncing Zelensky in some of the harshest terms seen from a Ukrainian official so far during the war.
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“At some point we will no longer be any different from Russia, where everything depends on the whim of one man,” Klitschko said in an interview with Der Spiegel, according to the New York Post.
“There is currently only one independent institution, but enormous pressure is being exerted on it: local self-government,” he added.
His praise for local administration over Zelensky’s national administration was a theme throughout the interview, giving credit to local administration for the initial victories Ukraine saw during the war.
Klitschko went even further in a separate interview with the news site 20Minutes, claiming Zelensky was lying to the public about Ukrainian victories. He agreed with Zaluzhny’s more pessimistic assessment: that the summer’s counteroffensive failed and the war is now a stalemate at best.
“[Zaluzhny] told the truth,” Klitschko said. “Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth. … Of course, we can euphorically lie to our people and our partners. But you can’t do that forever. Some of our politicians have criticized Zaluzhnyi for the clear words — wrongly. I stand behind him.”
“People see who’s effective and who’s not. And there were and still are a lot of expectations. Zelensky is paying for mistakes he has made,” the Kyiv mayor said.
Klitschko claimed that Zelensky’s popularity has been declining since its peak at the start of the invasion in February 2022. He believes the president will soon lose the presidency. Despite this, he said Ukrainians should still support Zelensky until the end of the war.
“The president has an important function today, and we have to support him until the end of the war,” Klitschko said. “But at the end of this war, every politician will pay for his successes or failures.”
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Zelensky hasn’t yet publicly responded to Klitschko’s criticisms. It’s unlikely he has in private either, as the Kyiv mayor revealed that the two rarely talk despite living and working close to one another.
The mayor’s remark that Zelensky is isolated paints an even more worrying picture of the Ukrainian leader as he faces some of the most intense pressure domestically and abroad.
