Ukraine’s Leader Is Being Broken by the System He Vowed to Crush

  • Zelenskiy locked in battle with courts as they attack reforms
  • IMF aid in the balance with anti-graft agenda under attack
Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the presidential office in Kyiv, Ukraine in March.Photographer: Alexey Furman/Bloomberg
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Ukraine’s president is losing a battle with the enduringly murky political system he was elected to eradicate.

A year and a half into his rule, Volodymyr Zelenskiy is flailing as hard-won reforms since the 2014 ouster of the country’s Kremlin-backed leader are being unraveled. As well as exposing his inexperience -- the 42-year-old was a top TV comic before taking office -- the backsliding throws into question the future of a nation that’s for decades played an outsized role in geopolitics, repeatedly thrusting the West and Russia into a tug of war.