NEW YORK (Dagbladet): Since Russia and President Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine in February, Zelensky has emerged as a great hero at home and internationally. But he did an interview Washington Post This week, it caused strong reactions in Ukraine.
Never used in war
The criticism of Zelensky comes while the situation around the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant is very tense. According to Reuters, Ukrainian intelligence claims that Russia is preparing a provocation on Friday. NTB writes that the country’s intelligence services are warning of a possible operation at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant after workers were asked to stay home on Friday.
Zelensky also rejected on Thursday that it was appropriate to make a peace deal with Russia without Russia withdrawing its forces from Ukraine. Speaking to the press after meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Lviv on Thursday, Zelensky said he was surprised to hear Erdogan that Russia is ready for some form of peace.
– Then they have to leave our lands first. Then we’ll see, said Zelensky.
controversy
In an interview earlier this week, the Ukrainian president defended that he had not told the Ukrainians about intelligence from the United States that Russia was planning an invasion. Many – including the notables – react aggressively, thinking they could have prepared and done things differently if they had known an attack was coming.
In the interview, Zelensky said he feared Ukrainians would panic, flee the country and cause an economic meltdown if he participated in the grim warnings from US intelligence.
– Had we reported this, we would have lost seven billion dollars a month since October of last year, and the Russians would have caught us within three days at the time when they attacked us, as the Ukrainian president said in the interview.
So it is believed that he did the right thing because Russia was not able to take the capital.
Weak point: – Surprised
– That’s what happened when the invasion began. We were as strong as possible. Some people left, but most stayed here and fought for their homes. And, as cynical as it may sound, Zelensky says, they’re the ones who stopped everything.
– hair lift
Now, however, many Ukrainians are reacting, who believe that he puts the economy before the security of the people. Many also claim that many lives could have been saved if the Ukrainian authorities had prepared the population for war.
– Personally, I am offended by these statements, wrote the editor-in-chief of Ukrainska Pravda, Sevgil Musaieva, in a post on Facebook.
– Honestly, my hair stopped ending when I read what Zelensky said about the eviction. How can someone who has seen Mariupol, Bucha and Kherson say that the evacuation would have drowned the country? Journalist Bogdan Butkevich wrote on his Facebook page, noting the horrific war crimes in these regions of Ukraine.
Powerful Boost: ‘Hell for Putin’
– He did not want to prepare the country militarily because he was afraid of losing power, writes Butkevich, according to Washington Post.
Ukrainian writer Katerina Babkina believes that not warning was a crime.
The failure to warn civilians in threatened areas, especially those with children, the elderly and those with limited mobility, was not an omission, not a mistake, nor an unfortunate misunderstanding, not a strategic miscalculation. Babkina said, according to the newspaper, it was a crime.
We know and understand
At the same time, there are still many who defend Zelensky.
Valery Bikar, who teaches at the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School, wrote on Facebook that the Ukrainians found out about the American warnings through the media.
-Anyone who didn’t pack his bag after reading the news from US intelligence has no right to claim he wasn’t warned, he says.
– We all knew and understood that the war was coming. We didn’t want to believe it because it was just too horrible to believe. Nothing in Zelensky’s statements can change anything significantly, Olena Jennes, responsible for the “What is Ukraine” project, wrote on her Facebook page.