Ukraine war student-turned-soldier

[MsAmerica]

Ukraine war student-turned-soldier: 'Friends die in your arms'
By Jeremy Bowen, BBC

"We are fighting for the freedom of the entire world, the entire civilised world and if anyone thinks it is a Ukrainian-Russian war, it isn't. It is the war of the light and the darkness between the Russia and the entire world."
www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61624557

[Henerlo]

Obviously he's having a hard time but this is hardly a glorious battle for the truth and light of democracy. Ukraine is a corrupt state and Zelenskyy is a dodgy guy with neo Nazis on his payroll who has put thousands of his citizens in Russia's sights with his ludicrous antics.

[MsAmerica]

I not only strongly disagree - surely this is a quintessential of an autocrat encroaching on various territories, just like Hitler - but your bias seems so extreme that it makes me wonder about you and your sources of information. This is exactly an example of a battle for democracy, with a Russian autocrat who can't bear having attempts at democracy on his borders.

[Henerlo]

Agree that Putin is anti democratic. He changed the constitution to cement his power and thus behaves more like a dictator than a democratic leader.

However Zelenskiy is also anti democratic. He rose to power by buying the media and positioning himself at the forefront of it ie through owning the means of propaganda. He gained power through a closed, snap election. And he cemented his power via a series of so called 'anti oligarch' laws. These were in fact just a series of laws that ensured all the other oligarchs - because he himself is one, be in no doubt - couldn't challenge him.

He was desperately unpopular with very low approval ratings prior to the all out war. Mostly because he is so very corrupt, which was not good for the average Ukrainian during the pandemic.

He's not fighting for democracy. He's fighting to weaken Russia because he wants to align himself with more powerful legitimate Western leaders.