With US President Donald Trump making unexpected decisions rapidly, the future of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is becoming increasingly uncertain.
Trump initiated peace talks with Russia but excluded Zelenskyy, who, over the past few years has received hundreds of billions of dollars in funding from the US which, Trump said was ‘wasteful’.
Trump also made it clear that the US will no longer be signing blank cheques to Ukraine after Zelenskyy admitted that more than 350 billion dollars was given to his government by Washington since Russia launched its military operation in 2022.
Trump went as far as referring to Zelenskyy as a dictator. Calls mount back in Ukraine for his regime to stop forcing civilians into joining the army and to hold elections. Zelenskyy became President in 2019 and has never held an election with his ratings reportedly on a downward spiral amongst Ukrainians.
The change of tune by Washington comes amid pressure in Ukraine for the country to hold elections with anti-war sections of the country backing Valery Zaluzhny who is set to challenge Zelenskyy.
Many believe Zaluzhny would swiftly end the war if he were to takeover.
On Thursday, pro and anti-war Ukrainians living in South Africa held demonstrations in Cape Town and Pretoria.
Yuri Butusov who participated in picket said: “We know that ordinary Ukrainians do not want war, only Zelenskyy wants war. That is why we demand his removal and an end to the war.” Butusov took part in the Pretoria picket outside the Ukraine embassy.
“We know that Valery Zaluzhny wants peace for Ukraine. He should be the president of Ukraine. We, together with the Russian and Ukrainian people, want neo-Nazis and terrorists to leave Ukraine,” said another protester Anna Rudnieva.
Zelenskyy’s government had been working to secure him a state visit to South Africa, and international relations analyst Abbey Makoe believes Zelenskyy is a liability, even likening him to a “dead man walking”.
“South Africa should steer clear of Zelenskyy, especially as he has rapidly become a nuisance to the US. South Africa already has tricky relations with the Trump administration. Pretoria cannot aggravate the situation with the ill-advised embrace of the soon-to-be tester’s man. With Trump ditching Zelenskyy publicly and calling him a dictator reluctant to hold elections to benefit from America’s gravy train, Zelenskyy is all but a dead man walking,” said Makoe.
Makoe said other than Zaluzhny’s rising popularity, Zelenskyy himself had extremely low ratings and said he expected him to try and avoid an election at all cost to avoid having to account for the thousands of deaths of soldiers in the war.
Makoe said without US backing, Zelenskyy had been reduced to insignificance and would soon be ousted.
“Trump says Zelenskyy’s approval rate is sitting at 4%. His unpopularity is due to his focus mainly on NATO membership and mobilising Europe against Russia and Putin. In the midst of it all, he has taken his attention from the national political reality. Daily, tens of thousands of Ukrainian fighters are decimated on the frontline.
“But Western media outlets driven by Russophobia continue to shore up Zelenskyy to fight until the last soldier, trusting in Western support for as long as it takes, as Biden would say.
“But then, Biden is history. If Zelenskyy holds elections, a lot of his failings will be revealed by the removal of martial law and return to normalcy. That is a dangerous proposition that even Kyiv’s EU backers do not prefer,” said Makoe.