The Ukrainian president, his friends say, has not changed that much. Yet his face has hardened, his words are sharper, his decisions are clear. After two years of conflict, Volodymyr Zelensky is going through a delicate moment. The fate of the youngest president in the history of Ukraine, who has just celebrated his 46the anniversary, is totally linked to that of Ukraine at war.
Mr. Zelensky’s first two metamorphoses are known. The first, when he was elected in 2019, transformed a comedian, actor, director and television producer into president. The second, when Moscow orders the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, is that of a “peace” president – or at least of a desired and hypothetical peace, an armed conflict ravaging the Donbass for eight years – as a “war” president.
Knowing he was personally targeted by the Russian army, he decided not to leave kyiv and to resist. He becomes a national hero. Then, in two years, the diplomatic and communicative head of state gradually transformed into a real war leader.
A reshuffle of the general staff
When the Russian army attacks the Ukrainian capital, with the objective defined by Vladimir Putin, to conquer the country, to take control of power and the armed forces (what the head of the Kremlin calls “denazify” And “demilitarize”), Volodymyr Zelensky does not have words strong enough to affirm that he does not interfere in military affairs and to say how much he has confidence in his generals in the defense of the country. Russia is then held in check. Two years later, the Ukrainian president decides appointments to the general staff and supervises battle plans.
Perhaps his most risky decision was to order, on February 8, the replacement as commander of the armies of General Valeri Zalouzhny, the most popular man in the country, by General Oleksandr Syrsky, a soldier with a halo of victories but little known to the population and controversial within the army for its determination to defend Bakhmout at all costs, finally lost in May 2023. Militarily, the reshuffle of the staff does not a priori change anything, the two officers sharing the same vision. Politically, on the other hand, by separating himself from the military icon of the resistance, Mr. Zelensky places himself on the front line and will henceforth have to answer to the Ukrainians for military strategy.
Another illustration of its transformation: presidential trips to the front lines are more and more frequent. Mr. Zelensky has certainly always demonstrated undeniable physical courage, in the streets of the bombed capital during the battle of Kiev, then on the front and in the liberated cities, such as Izioum and Kherson, in 2022. But, while the conflict has become a war of positions, the Russian army only managing to conquer Bakhmout and Avdiïvka in a year and a half, and Kiev failing in its summer counter-offensive of 2023, these movements are giving its services a cold sweat of security. He wants to show his solidarity with the soldiers in these difficult times, and preserve unity between the nation and the army.
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