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Ukraine is changing faster and more profoundly than ever – will it last?

Once dismissed abroad as a lightweight celebrity, Volodymyr Zelensky is breathing new life into a country hungry for change. But there are some very tough choices ahead

Mary Dejevsky
Thursday 19 September 2019 18:58 BST
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Since his election, Zelensky has displayed a canny popular touch, with all the timing and carriage of a showbiz professional
Since his election, Zelensky has displayed a canny popular touch, with all the timing and carriage of a showbiz professional

Kiev looks and feels its best in the early autumn sunshine. The trees are just starting to turn; the golden domes glisten, and happy people throng the central streets and cafes. In such surroundings, it’s easy to be carried away by what feels like a tangible change of mood since Volodymyr Zelensky was elected Ukraine’s president just as the late winter turned to a frigid spring. But for once, this upbeat first impression may be more than just superficial.

Casually dismissed by many (especially in the supercilious west) as “just a comedian”, Zelensky was always a lot more than that. They said he didn’t have a programme, but he did – and it’s now clear how extensive and thought-through that programme is. They said that Ukrainian voters confused the actor’s most famous television persona – as an “ordinary person” elevated by chance to the presidency – with the real candidate. Maybe some did; many did not.

And they said voters were just protesting against what they saw as a lack of economic and political progress under the previous president, Petro Poroshenko. Well, maybe they were, but as Zelensky himself pointed out in an ebullient address to a conference I just attended in the Ukrainian capital, even if it was a protest vote, they still chose to vote for someone, and that someone was him.

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