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At this point I might as well want to express my genuine admiration towards Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. He may have had the reputation of an actor and comedian by the time he got elected, and I remember many jokes circulating about Ukraine having a jokester as president.
Turns out you can’t simply judge him by his past career. His determination to remain behind in Kyiv and defend the city and his country alongside his people is nothing short of absolutely remarkable. He turned down multiple offers to be evacuated to somewhere safe, even knowing that Putin basically declared him the number one enemy of the Russian state. Against all predictions that Kyiv may have fallen within 24 hours of the invasion, the city is still holding, more than 48 hours later. In fact, I have yet to hear of any major Ukrainian city to fall to the Russians.
Zelenskiy is what makes a true leader. He may have made mistakes as we all do, but damn sure he knows the time to get serious and step up to what he stands for. He refuses to bail when things get tough and even risks his life by directly confronting the bear. He is a man of his people.
He makes the EU and NATO, perhaps with the exception of Canada, USA, Poland and the Baltics, look like pieces of butter. Including this insufferable monkey theatre that is the German government.
I just cannot understand why you are putting this man on a pedestal when he asked israel for help in mediating this conflict… Bunch of hypocrites to say the least
May I ask where you received this information? I’m certain I remembered that it was Israel who actively offered assistance themselves whereas Zelenskiy primarily appealed to NATO and EU countries for aid.
Thank you in advance.
Here’s one source:
From what I’ve seen they didn’t offer active assistance like you said, since Israel is one of Russia’s allies and they’re hesitant to break that relation.
In any case, praising people for going to war and this glorification and romanticization of conflict that I’ve been seeing across social media makes me uncomfortable. Specially when many of the countries involved have been responsible for many wars happening outside their borders and no one seems to care about that. Plus the racism happening right now towards people who are trying to flee from Ukraine. Let’s not forget about all that before calling anyone a hero.
Thanks for your reply. I stand corrected.
For what this is worth, I want to point out that even supposed heroes are not perfect. I did not paint Zelenskiy in a purely positive light. I merely outlined something in a dire situation such as this in which many other leaders would have most likely caved in earlier compared to him. In essence, credit where credit is due. War is a complicated matter where people can get easily agitated and react more strongly to differing standpoints, which includes me. I did not in any way glorify the fact that the Ukrainians have to hurt the Russian troops forced by Putin to fight to defend their homeland, but solely praised Zelenskiy for his courage and leadership qualities at the right time. There may have been implications that I glorified harm, but all I intended to do was to outline the positive things Zelenskiy has been doing in this war of which harming anyone is not a part, including the Russian troops.
I do not deny that Zelenskiy and the Ukrainian forces are not unanimously good. Zelenskiy may have handled the Donbass crisis poorly, which Putin used as a justification for this war. I too do not agree with the treatment that people with different origins other than Ukrainian have received at the hands of the Ukrainian border guards and hope that it will be remedied.
However, please do note that I wrote this post before I was aware of the incidents at the Polish-Ukrainian border, and just because I did not put forth a new post or edit does not mean that I condone with the incidents on the part of the Ukrainian forces. Hero may have a very positive connotation to it, however, as the supposed hero here is human like you, me, and everybody else, it does not make a hero perfectly good by any means. All the figures we see actually put on pedestals have respectively done inappropriate things themselves, while the praise they receive is specifically aimed at the positive things they have accomplished. More than that, putting someone on a pedestal can also mean that that person was a significant one that many people recognise, and that we can commemorate them for their accomplishments as well as shortcomings. This is an important part in learning from history, with praise there almost always comes criticism.
In conclusion, no side in a war is truly “good” or “bad”, as we can draw from WW1, WW2 or the Cold War. There may be main perpetrators, but I acknowledge that history is always written by the victors and that atrocities committed by the “good” sides often tend to be swept under the rug due to it. For example the division of the Ottoman Empire by the Entente at the end of WW1, which essentially led to the lasting instability in the region to this day. Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the list goes on forever. However, this isn’t the focus of this post and if I wanted to truly discuss this, I would have specifically put up another standalone post.
Nevertheless, I’m glad that you have shared your words with me, and I think we all can learn from each other, no matter how uncomfortable the topic at hand might be, such as all the associations to and actions of the countries involved in this response towards Putin, and the fact that escalation pretty much always means unnecessary bloodshed that is difficult to stop. Zelenskiy, like anybody else, is not exempt from criticism despite the circumstances. Though, morale is a thing and I think focussing on one major issue at a time is more effective, as much as there are a lot of unresolved ones floating about.
Thank you again and have a good one.
