As we continue in our Lying Commentator series, we want to examine the accuracy of the accusations made against Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian government by the Lying Commentator. Here is what the Lying Commentator whose name shall not be mentioned has said in his own words:
“Zelensky is more like Lenin than he is like Washington. He is a dictator. He is a dangerous authoritarian who has used $100 billion to erect a one-party police state. Over the past year, Zelensky has banned opposition parties.”
The only sentence in this paragraph that is remotely true is the Lying Commentator’s comparison of Zelensky to Lenin and Washington. Of course, as a man of the arts, an accomplished performer, actor and comedian, Zelensky is naturally going to be more similar to John Lenin than he is to Denzel Washington because Zelensky can also sing.
However, I do not see how this is relevant. Let’s talk about the Lying Commentator’s accusations instead of his melodramatic opinions.1
First… Zelensky is no dictator nor a dangerous authoritarian. No intelligent person in Ukraine thinks of Zelensky as a dictator and certainly no honest and well-informed person in Ukraine or the civilized world, would compare Zelensky to Putin (or V. Lenin) and put them on the same level on the Likert scale of authoritarianism.
Secondly… the Lying Commentator unfathomably indicates that Zelensky is using the aid that is being given to Ukraine for his own political machine. I apologize in advance for the redundancy, but this is both ridiculous and absurd! Is Ukraine not spending billions on the machinery of war? Has Ukraine not been paying soldiers? Does Ukraine not provide a tidy sum to the widows who have lost their husbands? Is Ukraine not providing operations and prosthetics to thousands of soldiers who have lost limbs? Are not infrastructure repairs constantly being undertaken? Are Ukrainian hospitals not filled with the injured and newly crippled? Who is paying for all that in an economy which has been cut by 30 to 50%? Here the Lying Commentator has gone from innocent lies to insulting the innocent victims of Russian atrocities as well as the heroes who are trying to put Ukraine’s soldiers back together.
Thirdly… the Lying Commentator shows his abject ignorance by claiming that Zelensky is creating a one-party police state and in addition to using western aid for this, he also allegedly does this by banning opposition parties. This is absolutely wrong-headed since it ignores the fact that Ukraine has over 350 political parties and only 12 have been banned.2 The parties that the government banned were not broken up because they were not loyal to Zelensky, but because they were not loyal to Ukraine. In Ukraine, we all know these parties were PRO-RUSSIA! (Yes… I yelled that). Even with that, Zelensky has refused to remove these parliamentarians and therefore break the constitution. This does not sound like the work of a dictator.
Nobody thinks Zelensky is an angel or sees him as perfect… and maybe this is a role he is playing… the role of a lifetime rooted in real danger… not like in Hollywood or even on an Alec Baldwin set. Zelensky has become a hero in Ukraine, because he stood with the people when all the oligarchs were fleeing. He put his life on the line and his family suffered along with all the other families in Ukraine. He has helped Ukrainians be proud of their country. Ukrainians are beginning to realize they do not have to be afraid of Russia. They do not have to endure the humiliations and deprivations they have experienced for centuries of being beaten, killed, robbed, raped, sodomized and even starved. All this is what the Lying Commentator whose name shall not be mentioned is incapable of understanding.3
1Yes of course, I know John Lennon’s last name only sounds like Vlad Lenin’s, and that by referring to Washington, the Lying Commentator was referring to George Washington. I simply chose to show as much respect for the Lying Commentator’s opinion as it deserved. George Washington is a solid 10 on the leadership scale, while Vladimir Lenin’s preference for violence and thievery put him down on the .02 end of the spectrum. The average Joe (not Biden) might come somewhere between those two, so I’m o.k. with Zelensky maintaining a solid 8.
2For an indepth list of the many political parties of Ukraine, check out this site. You may need to drag it over to translate.google.com
3There are a fair amount of links in this article and for some reason they seem to show up in green letters. Click on the green letter words and phrases if you would like to know more.
Eric Yodis has served through WorldVenture in Ukraine since 1995. After nineteen years in eastern Ukraine with his wife, Beth, they fled the war of Russian aggression in June 2014. Since 2015, they have lived in the Kyiv Oblast, but have once again been forced to evacuate due to the continuing war of Russian aggression against the peace loving people of Ukraine. Currently they split their time between the U.S. and Ukraine.
Eric Yodis 
Thanks for your treatise on Zelenski. It is good to hear from someone who is in the “trenches” in Ukraine tell it like it really is. Thanks again and I pray God’s blessings on both you, Beth, and your family.
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Thank you for your kind words. We deeply appreciate your prayers.
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