With his legislative on Thursday, Zelenskyy at least canceled the immediate machinery which is worried about observers, servants and foreign.
“It is important that the Ukrainians respond with such dignity to everything that is happening,” he said. He conceded in a conversation with journalists that “probably, there should have been a dialogue” before going ahead with the law. “I focus on the issue of war,” he added. “For me, it was very important that we listened to and responded adequately. People have asked for changes. We answered. “
When asked for comments on criticism, Zelenskyy’s office referred to NBC News on the comments made on Thursday.
What hurts the Ukrainians is the perception that the government could so easily cancel the progress harshly disputed during The 2014 Maidan uprising who ousted the leader supported by the Kremlin Viktor Yanukovych.
Mykhailo Sobaliev, an 18-year-old student, said that at the time, his father was the head of the Parliament’s anti-grafing committee and was directly involved in the creation of the two organizations whose law of power Zelenskyy sought to brake.
When Russia launched his large -scale invasion, his father immediately registered with the territorial defense units protecting the capital, and now He fights in Zaporizhzhia.
Sobaliev describes Zelenskyy’s law as “ugly” and “scandalous” and knows that criticizing the government in wartime is a gift for the enemies of Ukraine. But he considers the indignation of the public as “a demonstration that democracy still exists and is alive”.
Indeed, many here are impatient to emphasize that the manifestations, during a period of martial law, when such rallies for can be limited, would not be possible in Russia, Wa brutally crushed Very soft dissent displays.
Many Ukrainians see this civic wave as intrinsically linked to attritional violence on the front lines; If these values are not protected at home, then why do the troops fight?
War has become “difficult – very difficult,” said Aristarkh, 50, a Ukrainian special forces officer, who, like most Ukrainian soldiers, uses only one name for security reasons. “It is very difficult to remain motivated,” he said. However, “when I saw this number of people” Protestant and “also fighting for their country”, he felt “incredible pride”, he added. “It simply increases your level of motivation an order of magnitude.”
Jessica Berlin, senior member of the Center for European Policy Analysis, a Washington reflection group, is a vocal supporter of Ukraine. The initial law has been one of Zelenskyy’s “worst political errors since the start of the large-scale invasion,” she said, breaking “the tacit contract between the Ukrainian government and the people who have maintained more than three traumatic and exhausting years”.
The public has “abstained from mass demonstrations” in “the belief in good faith that the government does everything to win the war and restore security without exceeding its powers in times of war or threatening democratic progress,” she said. But “for many Ukrainians, this bill crosses a red line”.
The opprobrium was far from being just a servant, the leaders through Europe expressing their concern and urging Zelenskyy to rethink.
Others fear that his position has been undermined in the longer term.
“So far, Zelenskyy and his team have been recognized as” good guys, “said Draco Kos, former president of the organization of economic cooperation and work on corruption in international commercial transactions.
But this week asked uncomfortable questions: “Why are” good guys “afraid of anti-corruption efforts in their own country?” He said.
Dyna Mayer reported kyiv and Alexander Smith from London.