So, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky is Time’s 2022 Person of the Year. Time’s cover shows Zelensky gazing stoically, encircled by people, Ukrainian flags, and sunflowers (the national flower.) It’s effective. One can almost hear Shche Ne Vmerla Ukrainy, Ukraine's national anthem..Is this the same guy wearing high heels and gyrating in an old highly sexualized dance video? The guy who disrespectfully rips off a Cossack (revered defenders of Ukraine’s steppes against invaders) costume revealing tight leather pants? It is. For before he was elected president in 2019, Zelensky was a comedian and actor..Zelensky, 44, spiraled to superhero status as a defender of his people after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine..Two months earlier however, the UN Human Rights Council reported “fundamental freedoms in Ukraine have been squeezed” under Zelensky’s government. Squeezed evolved into crushed. Superhero Zelensky is also a dictator who since shut down churches, ousted political opponents, and took control of the media..Putin is rightly condemned as a devil for every transgression. But when St. Zelensky’s halo slips — even when he targets his citizens — he gets absolution. To criticize him is blasphemy..Slick PR campaigns operated out of England and the US help Zelensky craft his message..While war raged, Zelensky posed for cameras with a stream of politicians and celebrities. They travelled to Ukraine to show solidarity and get themselves good publicity. He’s appeared in video addresses at celebrity events like the Grammy Awards..Some hail Zelensky as another Sir Winston Churchill, Time’s Man of The Year in 1949. Others call him a fraud..Zelensky’s reckless actions had us on the brink of nuclear war. He cried “Russian missile terror” when a missile hit Poland killing two in November. He pushed to drag NATO, of which Poland is a member, into direct conflict with heavily nuclear-armed Russia. The NATO treaty’s Article 5 stipulates an armed attack against one member “shall be considered an attack against them all.” But Ukraine had launched the missile..Ukraine’s suffering is horrific. About 40,000 civilians died. For multitudes who haven’t fled the country, survival is day-to-day. Sending military and humanitarian aid is imperative..But Zelensky belligerently demands international assistance — more cash, more military equipment, more rocket artillery, more long-range missiles, more everything to conquer the Russians..But no negotiations to end the war..Loathing of Putin the aggressor — who said he sent troops in to “demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine” and protect Russians in the eastern Donbas region from genocide and bullying — has numerous countries obliging Zelensky’s demands. More than $105 billion has been pledged by the US, tens of billions more from the EU, more than $2 billion from Canada, likely more we don’t know about, and more is on the way..“We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic and legal support and will stand firmly with Ukraine for as long as it takes,” vowed the G-7..Democracy is at stake, says Zelensky, when fervently demanding more. He wears a green army T-shirt for effect. He knows the game. Image and optics are critical..But the optics were bad when Zelensky’s wife Olena Zelenska reportedly purchased $58,000 (40,000 euros) worth of new clothes during a shopping spree on the high-scale Avenue Montaigne in Paris. Zelenska was in Paris December 12th-14th to beg for more money to help her suffering people through the winter, citing Russia’s attacks against Ukraine’s energy grid. Western allies at an international conference — Standing with the Ukrainian People — committed another $1.6 billion (1.1 billion euros.).Social media erupted in rage however, after Conservative Treehouse outed Zelenska’s alleged extravagance. Nonetheless, Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, also in Paris, pledged $115 million more taxpayer dollars to help Ukraine rebuild its basic infrastructure..Zelensky pitched a demand via a video address at the conference. And his wife power shopped..Poverty and hunger have always stalked Ukrainians. It’s the breadbasket of the world — and a corrupt nation where elites own lavish dachas, eat obscenely expensive black caviar, and set up offshore accounts..Zelensky won a landslide victory because he vowed to uphold democracy, make peace with Russia, and rid Ukraine of oligarchs that amassed billions in wealth while babas on church steps beg for kopiyka (coins) to buy bread..How many loaves would $58,000 buy?.But where will these impoverished old ladies beg now? Zelensky ordered a Ukrainian Orthodox Church crackdown earlier this month, including searches and seizures, banning the religious organization affiliated with Moscow. Millions of worshipers attend 12,000 Ukrainian Orthodox Churches. Many of these church leaders decried Russia’s invasion and distanced themselves from Moscow..Didn’t matter..That followed Zelensky banning political opposition and shutting down Ukrainian-owned and staffed media outlets. He decreed all TV channels would be combined into one — controlled by him.The bitter irony. TASS, Pravda, Sputnik, all media outlets in Russia — controlled by Putin..Zelensky turned Ukraine into a one-party state. He banned Opposition Platform for Life (OPL), the largest opposition party that held 43-seats in Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Council) from “all activity within Ukraine.” OPL was gaining popularity in Ukraine. Zelensky bragged about arresting OPL leader Victor Medvedchuck, accusing him of committing treason by providing state secrets to Putin. No evidence was provided..Zelensky declared 10 other parties illegal, eliminating all opposition..Reports of dissidents — journalists and politicians — disappearing or being tortured by the Ukrainian Sluzhba Bezpeky Ukrayiny (SBU) security services and Azov neo-Nazi ultra-nationalists seep out. Russian propaganda or truth?.Some alleged pro-Russian dissidents were punished for wanting talks with Russia to de-escalate the war..Zelensky outlawed the Russian language. Ukraine’s population is 30% Russian..He imposed martial law. (Sound familiar?).How exactly is Zelensky protecting democracy?.Russia’s Putin (Time’s man in 2007) Vladimir Lenin and the genocidal Joseph Stalin, (Time’s man in 1939 and 1942) also stripped people of rights and freedoms..Putin is a former KGB goon who sent countless people to torture chambers and gulags. He must stand before a war crimes tribunal to answer for invading Ukraine and firing missiles into civilian areas..The February invasion was an escalation of an ongoing brutal — atrocities committed by both sides — conflict that erupted in 2014 in the Donbas region between Ukrainian forces and Russian separatists backed by Putin troops. Russia also invaded and annexed Crimea that year..Zelensky’s promised peace never materialized. He made no attempt to stop the civil war — rife with atrocities committed by both sides. He refused to implement Minsk peace deals signed in 2014 and 2015. He taunts Putin with his obsession to join NATO..That promise to rid Ukraine of corrupt oligarchs? Ukraine’s parliament passed an anti-oligarch bill in September 2021..A month later, the Pandora papers, a trove of data exposing tax haven secrecy, were leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and world media outlets..Documents showed Zelensky’s wealth after he became president rose to $850 million. He participated in a sprawling network of offshore companies, co-owned with friendsand business partners..Last May, when appealing for money to the World Economic Forum, Zelensky said he’d get right on rooting out corruption..For some, funding this war effort is about ousting Putin, hated by globalists he won’t bow to, not saving Ukrainians. If more people are collateral damage, so be it..Zelensky gets what he demands without having to make efforts to find a way to end the war and Ukrainian bloodshed. He flatly ruled out negotiations with Putin..So, both dictators will keep sending their militaries to slaughter. Many are conscripts who know nothing about combat. Each side has lost about 100,000 soldiers..Neither Putin nor Zelensky are trustworthy. It’s a shame either one has to win..The war must end. Does anyone but its helpless victims want it to?
