Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

No More Honeymoon for Ukraine’s President

Stopping corruption and making peace are proving to be elusive goals.

The war’s not over.

Photographer: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy rose to power on two main promises: fighting the country’s endemic corruption and bringing peace to eastern Ukraine. He’s losing ground on the first, and facing increasing pressure to make progress on the second.

Zelensky has enjoyed a remarkable run of luck since he and his party won two landslide elections earlier this year. Their popularity has grown thanks to a bumper harvest, surprising economic growth and a successful prisoner exchange with Russia — something that the previous administration had failed for years to achieve.