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    • GarbageShoot [he/him]
      ·
      1 year ago

      Well, he ran on a platform that was much more conciliatory to Russia than his position in office, getting a lot of support from Donbas. Now he plays a Ukrainian nationalist that can hardly speak Ukrainian.

      I think he was basically told in so many words that he could either get a lucrative deal playing wartime leader or he could get a bullet to the head courtesy of Azov, and he chose the former.

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        1 year ago

        Now he's kind of stuck in this situation forever. He can't end the war with a treaty, because it would probably end in a negotiation to cede territory or for the Ukrainian military to leave Donbas and Luhansk alone. Zelenskyy would get shot in the head by some fanatical nationalist. He can't keep the war going forever, because it's such a mess that it's somehow put a stress on the world's supply of artillery shells.

        He's just stuck in this eternal present, he's a human embodiment of the concept of a quagmire

        • NoGodsNoMasters [they/them, she/her]
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yeah if Zelensky signed peace giving up territory there's roughly a 100% chance Nazis would spin that into a 'stab in the back' type story

        • Kuori [she/her]
          ·
          1 year ago

          lots of minority groups have members who join their oppressors, it's sad and disgusting but not really uncommon. like have they never heard of a black or gay or trans conservative or fascist?

          • Frank [he/him, he/him]
            ·
            1 year ago

            In Zelensky's defense he ran on a peace platform promising to get some kind of peace negotiations going. It was very popular, though from what I understand the popularity was skewed somewhat towards the eastern half of the country with less support in the Banderite heartland of Galacia. When one he tried to put his promises in action and found out that the president doesn't actually control the country, and that the Nazi formations and their allies had no intention of allowing the war to be stopped.

            • Kuori [she/her]
              ·
              1 year ago

              i could see arguments for zelensky as a tragic figure, though the panama pandora paper reveals that he's deeply corrupt don't really do much for that interpretation imo. though i suppose depending on the timeline (i haven't bothered to check) he could have meant what he promised, realized a bunch of hardened neo-nazi fighters weren't going to take commands from a jewish man and then decided "might as well make some fat stacks at least"

              regardless yeah i remember that video of some right-sector (i think? might have been azov or someone else, there are too many nazis to keep straight) fighters flatly telling him to fuck off to his face when he ordered them to stand down