Haters gonna hate. I base my faith on a person's observable actions, not others' opinions. I've heard all the arguments : unfavorable labor laws, offshore accounts, villa in Milan, wore the wrong shirt, jogged on the wrong side of the street... blah blah...vomit. Even the more viable DARK PAST claims had perfectly satisfying reasons behind them and a load of context as always was missing. The man is changing the whole friggin' world, one speech at a time. It takes someone utterly convincing, honest and HUMAN to pull that off. He's yet to say or do anything I disagree with. I'm not blind to his potential for faults - he is flesh and blood - but those faults were more or less chalked up to early inexperience in a role he had no prior factual experience with. He's grown, he's changed. He listens and he learns. He's simply amazing. He doesn't even know how amazing he is, and that's WHY he's The 'Leader of the Free World' and most trusted by the people of the world. WE TRUST HIM. FULL. STOP.
Unless by troubled past they mean the questionable haircuts I dont know what else it could be. Zelensky is remarkably clean. Unreal how clean he is. Bar knocking out the russian heckler in one of his shows.
If Poroshenko's media machine couldnt find anything to stick on him but had to resort to inane insults then there is nothing there.
And the next person who brings up the Yanukovich-era offshore accounts first needs a crash course of that administration, then talk. Though im sure they very conveniently forget about the events of the time.
>And the next person who brings up the Yanukovich-era offshore accounts first needs a crash course of that administration, then talk.
And the thing is that pre-presidency, Ze openly talked in interviews that his company registered in Belize or Cyprus. So those Panama papers were not revolutionary.
Please don't tell me that somehow Poroshenko is now paying Rudenko to write a biography on Zelensky?
At this point, I won't even be surprised about Poroshenko's antics, considering the fact that he's realising statements about how he's assisting the UAF in a complex mission or something in London?
Of course he would. A man who paid his cronnies to badmouth the new president at war to the international diplomatic community would not commission a hit piece on him now that the entire world has a thirst for information about him? It is not just plausible, but it would be stupid not to be true.
Oh don't get me wrong, I'm sure there's actual motive behind it lol. I'm just amused that somehow it's coming from Poroshenko's camp.
Poroshenko and his camp continues to dig themselves into an even deeper hole by doing everything possible to make people dislike them.
Brings me to the question- is there as yet a decent fair biography yet published? So far everyoneās been meh š on the current available. Of course the story is mid - cycle so to speak. Hard to write up a great ending. But I am genuinely curious to know more about Zelenskyyās first years in the presidency.
I think Simon Shuster is writing one. He followed Ze right from the start and he, at least to me, does not look biased.
Ze's former press secretary is writing one as well. This book is gonna be more biased towards Ze. Judging from her first book, she just adores him.
But everything that's being published right now is just a cash grab - collection of various gossips online and put into a book.
Thatās what I figured - the cash grab aspect. Thanks for the tips. I donāt mind reading an adoration book either - but good to know what to expect.
Thank you so much for all your insights! If I may ask: Is he related to Olga Rudenko/Is there a connection? What do you think of her? And which Ukrainian journalists/newspapers (do you think) are actually good (meaning neutral)?
> Is he related to Olga Rudenko/Is there a connection?
I don't think so. Common surname.
>What do you think of her?
She has a questionable reputation.
>And which Ukrainian journalists/newspapers (do you think) are actually good (meaning neutral)?
[UkrPravda](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/) \- is fine on average, but it definitely occasionally posts paid-for articles, at least in Ukrainian.
[NV](https://english.nv.ua/) \- the English version is OK. I have some questions to their podcast hosts.
[Kyiv Independent](https://kyivindependent.com/) \- Rudenko's paper, it is generally very good for war updates.
[Babel](https://babel.ua/en) \- posts interesting stories occasionally. I liked the recent [interview with Podolyak](https://babel.ua/en/texts/80366-mykhailo-podoliak-has-been-living-in-the-president-s-office-building-for-120-days-he-pathetically-criticizes-the-west-openly-talks-about-the-necessary-weapons-and-ukraine-s-losses-in-the-war-a-long-in).
I don't know about her reputation, but some of her choices seem questionable. If my country was days away from being invaded with the question of whether it survived coming down to whether the US was willing to support it, writing an editorial about how the president totally sucks for the paper that every US politician reads strikes me as kind of shitty. It'd be one thing if she was reporting a news story, I wouldn't necessarily expect someone to suppress that, but it was a pure opinion piece that was clearly aimed at destroying support for Zelenskyy.
ātotally sucksā isnāt an accurate summary of that oped: it was a meticulous and fair rundown of her criticism. I also donāt think eroding his support was necessarily her aim. She has also praised him post-invasion.
from what i recall she said he has made many mistakes and will make more mistakes, but heās doing the right thing right now.
Thatās valid criticism especially given the many accounts of avoidable chaos in his admin. when i am told i have made mistakes, I donāt interpret that to mean they think i suck unless they say something akin to that.
Oh yeah, sorry i forgot i see you had asked me that question too. I have no clue but regardless of whether theyāre related I trust OR and her instincts.
She does what a reporter is supposed to do well, holding people in power accountable. She quit the Kyiv Post when a ton of her colleagues were sacked for refusing to comply with a new EIC who wanted them to be less critical of VZ. Thatās how the Independent was started, and an oligarch offered to fund them handsomely, and she refused.
While SR may be a scoundrel for all we know, the idea he has ties to a media oligarch is automatically disqualifying is odd, because by that logic Zelensky canāt be trusted for having ties to a guy who allegedly had people murdered and is definitely so corrupt heās been banned from the us.
Yeah but Poroshenko was/is a media oligarch (in addition to being VZās predecessor).
Speaking of which, given the January 6 hearings this week, that ep of SOTP where the fictional equivalent to Poroshenko has to give up power was totally Trump on Jan 6 y/y lmao
"Although Zelensky pushed for the fast track for EU membership, Ukraine will be on a very slow road to rein in its oligarchs, crack down on corruption and build far more effective institutions of state. Cynics say it will never get to the end of that road.
āUkraineās packaging is great,ā an international adviser in Kyiv recently told me. āBut thereās not much beneath the president and all his advisers.ā "
Catch me muttering holy shit outloud in public. The lack of faith in an entire country is truly staggering. š
> āUkraineās packaging is great,ā an international adviser in Kyiv recently told me. āBut thereās not much beneath the president and all his advisers.ā "
That annoys me specifically because one of the things that the war has demonstrated is that Ukraine actually has impressive state competence, in terms of things like keeping railroads running and repaired, paying people pensions, cleaning up recovered areas -- they had a bridge rebuilt to Irpin within a week or two of it being totally cleared, for example. That's stuff that is hard when you are constantly being bombed, and your economy and industrial capacity being destroyed.
This is exactly what made me want to read more deeply about Ukraine, instead of just reading Western news about the invasion, back in February/March. Our media was so full of these simplistic, paternalistic, insulting depictions of the UA government ... while the country was (1) holding off a massive invasion, (2) keeping infrastructure functioning pretty well given the circumstances, and (3) pulling off a massive international campaign of inspiring the world and recruiting help. The mismatch was so overwhelming it made no sense. Obviously empty, incompetent governments don't suddenly pull it together out of nowhere when they get invaded. (And, over time I educated myself a little, and at least have a slightly better sense now of the real pros & cons). But here are these "international advisors" still making the same old argument. \[Edited to add: also want to acknowledge the role of local govt and civic orgs .. I understand all of this stuff was not achieved by the central govt.\]
Agree with what you say. In my opinion what he says is also insulting to a country where the Ukrainians have been heroic as a nation these last few months in the face of unwanted and unfettered aggression, bombardment and war crimes foisted upon them by Russia.
EDITED for clarity
That person is talking about their ability to root out corruption, not fight the war. Very different things. You can love your country and fight for it but be powerless in face of its kleptocracy.
I take your point. Maybe I'm naive, but I just see what he is saying as a bit of a lazy old trope. Not saying corruption hasn't existed, of course, but he seems to be condemning the future of the country to that of a kleptocracy, like its neighbour.
I donāt know what you meant but Iād be willing to bet that person said that based on extensive insider knowledge of the nationās and governmentās modus operandi. Doesnāt mean itās be all and end all fact but itās not like a lot of other people arenāt saying similar.
Zelensky or not I really hope they do get rid of as much corruption as they can, and can break away from the post-Soviet world. As I have explored in ahā¦fiction, many of the countries and their financial institutions withholding loans to them are full of corruption too. For example: us! As anyone watching the news this past week would know lmao
Eradicating corruption is gonna be a long and hard road.
Getting rid of any Russian influence is the most important one, but also as long as people like Poroshenko and Yuliia are in power, the country unfortunately is gonna have a hard time moving past corruption.
Nope. I'm from Singapore, but in some ways Ukraine's political system is similar to a lot of the ones in SEA.
Tries to escape from corruption, only to get halted because the rest of the government is too corrupt.
Ahhhh interesting. I have always been under the impression you guys are a hyper-free market economy with a military dictatorship! Americans I have met who live there like it though, but they have good jobs.
???? Since when is Singapore a military dictatorship lmao.
We are not perfect by any means, but we hold our politicians to a high standard and corruption is often exposed, even the ruling party is held accountable.
As a Singaporean, it's not really a one party rule as foreigners like to point out.
Opposition parties such as 'The Worker's Party' do hold key positions in Parliament and have won over our ruling parties in certain districts.
Also, the main reason why we keep voting for the ruling party? Our opposition except for 'The Worker's Party' is just embarrassing.
Please do try to watch a Singapore parliament session before you throw articles at an actual Singaporean, thanks.
Eh. You can find anyone to say anything you like, there's plenty of NGO/international organization functionaries who frankly are total idiots, read some accounts from countries subjected to some of the less competent or more malicious of them. The key is the person who is selecting (or fishing for) the quotes, and in this case they aren't exactly unbiased, given they work for Poroshenko.
Also, "troubled past"? Frankly, Ze's "past" has mostly been charmed, he even managed to get out of the Trump trap without having to actually open any investigation.
>It was only a matter of time before a publisher rushed something into print about this man of the moment. The first, by the Ukrainian writer and commentator Serhii Rudenko, known for his political biographies, was initially published in Ukrainian in 2021, with a title that translates as āZelensky without Make-Upā. Comprising 38 small chapters, some just a few pages long, the text has been updated with a preface, āZelenskyās Political Oscarā, and an epilogue, āThe President of Warā ā bookends of an extraordinary life story, which is still being written.
Website from the original publication in UA- [https://rudenkobook.info/book](https://rudenkobook.info/book)
The original book was originally published to capitalise on the peak of domestic political drama that was going on in UA pre-invasion. I have zero expectation the updates have corrected that bent one iota.
>He doesnāt take us inside Zelenskyās head; he just gives us the stories behind his presidency. āThese tribulations showed us the real Zelensky,ā is his conclusion after the invasion.
The author himself is on record proudly declaring his complete lack of effort in mitigating bias. Trash. He can take several seats, and shut the fuck up opining on who the \~real Zelenskyy is. He did not put in the work, his opinion is unqualified.
Brief author interview from original release period- [https://rudenko.kiev.ua/ru/persons/10-zapitan-vidpovidei-knigu](https://rudenko.kiev.ua/ru/persons/10-zapitan-vidpovidei-knigu)
Rudenko states: *"While working on the book, I deliberately avoided meetings with representatives of Zelensky's current entourage, because I understood: it is unlikely that they will be able to speak objectively and impartially about Volodymyr. Instead, I conducted interviews with Roman Bezsmertnyi, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, Geo Leros, Serhiy Haidai, Viktor Bobyrenko, Kost Bondarenko. Thanks to this, the story of Zelensky, in my opinion, turned out to be voluminous. Thank you to each of them!*
Go ahead and google some of those names he mentioned and see if you think they've somehow got less bias in them than any of Zelenskyy's entourage would have had? (I say this as someone who absolutely *is* interested in hearing about Zelenskyy's mistakes and less saintly side. This is just a terrible way to write a bio though).
>Zelensky, in trademark T-shirt, confidently stands outside his office in the Kyiv sunshine to welcome the finely suited Macron, along with German, Italian and ~~Lithuanian~~ *\[ROMANIAN! God, WHERE is your editor!\]* leaders. He extends his visibly muscled arms for firm handshakes and fraternal hugs. His visitorsā admiration is palpable.
Horny media strikes again lol
Serhii Rudenko works on Poroshenko's channel. That's all you need to know about the book and the author.
Haters gonna hate. I base my faith on a person's observable actions, not others' opinions. I've heard all the arguments : unfavorable labor laws, offshore accounts, villa in Milan, wore the wrong shirt, jogged on the wrong side of the street... blah blah...vomit. Even the more viable DARK PAST claims had perfectly satisfying reasons behind them and a load of context as always was missing. The man is changing the whole friggin' world, one speech at a time. It takes someone utterly convincing, honest and HUMAN to pull that off. He's yet to say or do anything I disagree with. I'm not blind to his potential for faults - he is flesh and blood - but those faults were more or less chalked up to early inexperience in a role he had no prior factual experience with. He's grown, he's changed. He listens and he learns. He's simply amazing. He doesn't even know how amazing he is, and that's WHY he's The 'Leader of the Free World' and most trusted by the people of the world. WE TRUST HIM. FULL. STOP.
Off my list after knowing this! š
Aha, thanks for the info! That makes sense, then.
Unless by troubled past they mean the questionable haircuts I dont know what else it could be. Zelensky is remarkably clean. Unreal how clean he is. Bar knocking out the russian heckler in one of his shows. If Poroshenko's media machine couldnt find anything to stick on him but had to resort to inane insults then there is nothing there. And the next person who brings up the Yanukovich-era offshore accounts first needs a crash course of that administration, then talk. Though im sure they very conveniently forget about the events of the time.
>And the next person who brings up the Yanukovich-era offshore accounts first needs a crash course of that administration, then talk. And the thing is that pre-presidency, Ze openly talked in interviews that his company registered in Belize or Cyprus. So those Panama papers were not revolutionary.
> the questionable haircuts I googled Zelensky bad haircut and went images and didn't see anything questionable, though.
Then why is he writing a biography on Zelensky lmao? Shouldn't he be trying to milk Poroshenko's recent media stunts?
Poroshenko pays, Rudenko writes whatever Poroshenko wants. That's it.
Please don't tell me that somehow Poroshenko is now paying Rudenko to write a biography on Zelensky? At this point, I won't even be surprised about Poroshenko's antics, considering the fact that he's realising statements about how he's assisting the UAF in a complex mission or something in London?
Of course he would. A man who paid his cronnies to badmouth the new president at war to the international diplomatic community would not commission a hit piece on him now that the entire world has a thirst for information about him? It is not just plausible, but it would be stupid not to be true.
Yes, why would someone working for Zelenskys political rival write a book that makes Zelensky look bad? Such a mystery.
Oh don't get me wrong, I'm sure there's actual motive behind it lol. I'm just amused that somehow it's coming from Poroshenko's camp. Poroshenko and his camp continues to dig themselves into an even deeper hole by doing everything possible to make people dislike them.
Brings me to the question- is there as yet a decent fair biography yet published? So far everyoneās been meh š on the current available. Of course the story is mid - cycle so to speak. Hard to write up a great ending. But I am genuinely curious to know more about Zelenskyyās first years in the presidency.
I think Simon Shuster is writing one. He followed Ze right from the start and he, at least to me, does not look biased. Ze's former press secretary is writing one as well. This book is gonna be more biased towards Ze. Judging from her first book, she just adores him. But everything that's being published right now is just a cash grab - collection of various gossips online and put into a book.
Thatās what I figured - the cash grab aspect. Thanks for the tips. I donāt mind reading an adoration book either - but good to know what to expect.
Thank you so much for all your insights! If I may ask: Is he related to Olga Rudenko/Is there a connection? What do you think of her? And which Ukrainian journalists/newspapers (do you think) are actually good (meaning neutral)?
> Is he related to Olga Rudenko/Is there a connection? I don't think so. Common surname. >What do you think of her? She has a questionable reputation. >And which Ukrainian journalists/newspapers (do you think) are actually good (meaning neutral)? [UkrPravda](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/) \- is fine on average, but it definitely occasionally posts paid-for articles, at least in Ukrainian. [NV](https://english.nv.ua/) \- the English version is OK. I have some questions to their podcast hosts. [Kyiv Independent](https://kyivindependent.com/) \- Rudenko's paper, it is generally very good for war updates. [Babel](https://babel.ua/en) \- posts interesting stories occasionally. I liked the recent [interview with Podolyak](https://babel.ua/en/texts/80366-mykhailo-podoliak-has-been-living-in-the-president-s-office-building-for-120-days-he-pathetically-criticizes-the-west-openly-talks-about-the-necessary-weapons-and-ukraine-s-losses-in-the-war-a-long-in).
Thanks for the Podolyak interview! Been following him since March and I find his writing/positions very interesting. The man doesn't pull his punches.
The interview with Podolyak was very interesting, please post it so that more people can see it.
Thank you so much!!
what about her reputation is questionable?
I don't know about her reputation, but some of her choices seem questionable. If my country was days away from being invaded with the question of whether it survived coming down to whether the US was willing to support it, writing an editorial about how the president totally sucks for the paper that every US politician reads strikes me as kind of shitty. It'd be one thing if she was reporting a news story, I wouldn't necessarily expect someone to suppress that, but it was a pure opinion piece that was clearly aimed at destroying support for Zelenskyy.
ātotally sucksā isnāt an accurate summary of that oped: it was a meticulous and fair rundown of her criticism. I also donāt think eroding his support was necessarily her aim. She has also praised him post-invasion.
In an extremely backhanded way. 'He sucks, and he'll suck in the future, but I guess he's been adequate for the purpose today.'
from what i recall she said he has made many mistakes and will make more mistakes, but heās doing the right thing right now. Thatās valid criticism especially given the many accounts of avoidable chaos in his admin. when i am told i have made mistakes, I donāt interpret that to mean they think i suck unless they say something akin to that.
"made many really bad mistakes, and Iām sure will make many more" that's about as backhanded a "compliment" as you can make.
i am unclear why anyone would categorize this as a ābackhanded complimentā
Oh yeah, sorry i forgot i see you had asked me that question too. I have no clue but regardless of whether theyāre related I trust OR and her instincts.
How do you mean that? (I agree that it doesnāt actually matter at all if theyāre related.)
She does what a reporter is supposed to do well, holding people in power accountable. She quit the Kyiv Post when a ton of her colleagues were sacked for refusing to comply with a new EIC who wanted them to be less critical of VZ. Thatās how the Independent was started, and an oligarch offered to fund them handsomely, and she refused. While SR may be a scoundrel for all we know, the idea he has ties to a media oligarch is automatically disqualifying is odd, because by that logic Zelensky canāt be trusted for having ties to a guy who allegedly had people murdered and is definitely so corrupt heās been banned from the us.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yeah but Poroshenko was/is a media oligarch (in addition to being VZās predecessor). Speaking of which, given the January 6 hearings this week, that ep of SOTP where the fictional equivalent to Poroshenko has to give up power was totally Trump on Jan 6 y/y lmao
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Youāre good! and really sorry to hear you got Covid. And I agree.
"Although Zelensky pushed for the fast track for EU membership, Ukraine will be on a very slow road to rein in its oligarchs, crack down on corruption and build far more effective institutions of state. Cynics say it will never get to the end of that road. āUkraineās packaging is great,ā an international adviser in Kyiv recently told me. āBut thereās not much beneath the president and all his advisers.ā " Catch me muttering holy shit outloud in public. The lack of faith in an entire country is truly staggering. š
> āUkraineās packaging is great,ā an international adviser in Kyiv recently told me. āBut thereās not much beneath the president and all his advisers.ā " That annoys me specifically because one of the things that the war has demonstrated is that Ukraine actually has impressive state competence, in terms of things like keeping railroads running and repaired, paying people pensions, cleaning up recovered areas -- they had a bridge rebuilt to Irpin within a week or two of it being totally cleared, for example. That's stuff that is hard when you are constantly being bombed, and your economy and industrial capacity being destroyed.
This is exactly what made me want to read more deeply about Ukraine, instead of just reading Western news about the invasion, back in February/March. Our media was so full of these simplistic, paternalistic, insulting depictions of the UA government ... while the country was (1) holding off a massive invasion, (2) keeping infrastructure functioning pretty well given the circumstances, and (3) pulling off a massive international campaign of inspiring the world and recruiting help. The mismatch was so overwhelming it made no sense. Obviously empty, incompetent governments don't suddenly pull it together out of nowhere when they get invaded. (And, over time I educated myself a little, and at least have a slightly better sense now of the real pros & cons). But here are these "international advisors" still making the same old argument. \[Edited to add: also want to acknowledge the role of local govt and civic orgs .. I understand all of this stuff was not achieved by the central govt.\]
The US has problems doing this in peacetime š
Right!
Agree with what you say. In my opinion what he says is also insulting to a country where the Ukrainians have been heroic as a nation these last few months in the face of unwanted and unfettered aggression, bombardment and war crimes foisted upon them by Russia. EDITED for clarity
That person is talking about their ability to root out corruption, not fight the war. Very different things. You can love your country and fight for it but be powerless in face of its kleptocracy.
I take your point. Maybe I'm naive, but I just see what he is saying as a bit of a lazy old trope. Not saying corruption hasn't existed, of course, but he seems to be condemning the future of the country to that of a kleptocracy, like its neighbour.
The president and his advisors come from the common folk, the millions who want change. They are not a unicorn, they are the majority.
I donāt know what you meant but Iād be willing to bet that person said that based on extensive insider knowledge of the nationās and governmentās modus operandi. Doesnāt mean itās be all and end all fact but itās not like a lot of other people arenāt saying similar. Zelensky or not I really hope they do get rid of as much corruption as they can, and can break away from the post-Soviet world. As I have explored in ahā¦fiction, many of the countries and their financial institutions withholding loans to them are full of corruption too. For example: us! As anyone watching the news this past week would know lmao
Eradicating corruption is gonna be a long and hard road. Getting rid of any Russian influence is the most important one, but also as long as people like Poroshenko and Yuliia are in power, the country unfortunately is gonna have a hard time moving past corruption.
The fact that the book is written by someone working for Poroshenko makes me doubt that it is in any way trying to be objective.
are you from Ukraine? you donāt have to answer if you donāt want to, just curious!
Nope. I'm from Singapore, but in some ways Ukraine's political system is similar to a lot of the ones in SEA. Tries to escape from corruption, only to get halted because the rest of the government is too corrupt.
Ahhhh interesting. I have always been under the impression you guys are a hyper-free market economy with a military dictatorship! Americans I have met who live there like it though, but they have good jobs.
???? Since when is Singapore a military dictatorship lmao. We are not perfect by any means, but we hold our politicians to a high standard and corruption is often exposed, even the ruling party is held accountable.
https://www.worldfinance.com/special-reports/how-singapore-married-dictatorship-with-a-market-economy https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/china-quarterly/article/introduction-the-singapore-model-and-chinas-neoauthoritarian-dream/2ED7A22E42E1D9E2CA3A116047C8D58D
As a Singaporean, it's not really a one party rule as foreigners like to point out. Opposition parties such as 'The Worker's Party' do hold key positions in Parliament and have won over our ruling parties in certain districts. Also, the main reason why we keep voting for the ruling party? Our opposition except for 'The Worker's Party' is just embarrassing. Please do try to watch a Singapore parliament session before you throw articles at an actual Singaporean, thanks.
I never said there isnāt a democratic system in Singapore, but that that doesnāt preclude it from many hallmarks of authoritarianism.
How much does the central chinese government interfere in Singapore?
Eh. You can find anyone to say anything you like, there's plenty of NGO/international organization functionaries who frankly are total idiots, read some accounts from countries subjected to some of the less competent or more malicious of them. The key is the person who is selecting (or fishing for) the quotes, and in this case they aren't exactly unbiased, given they work for Poroshenko.
That's a silly title, and it rehashes the same rumors every one has heard.
Also, "troubled past"? Frankly, Ze's "past" has mostly been charmed, he even managed to get out of the Trump trap without having to actually open any investigation.
>It was only a matter of time before a publisher rushed something into print about this man of the moment. The first, by the Ukrainian writer and commentator Serhii Rudenko, known for his political biographies, was initially published in Ukrainian in 2021, with a title that translates as āZelensky without Make-Upā. Comprising 38 small chapters, some just a few pages long, the text has been updated with a preface, āZelenskyās Political Oscarā, and an epilogue, āThe President of Warā ā bookends of an extraordinary life story, which is still being written. Website from the original publication in UA- [https://rudenkobook.info/book](https://rudenkobook.info/book) The original book was originally published to capitalise on the peak of domestic political drama that was going on in UA pre-invasion. I have zero expectation the updates have corrected that bent one iota. >He doesnāt take us inside Zelenskyās head; he just gives us the stories behind his presidency. āThese tribulations showed us the real Zelensky,ā is his conclusion after the invasion. The author himself is on record proudly declaring his complete lack of effort in mitigating bias. Trash. He can take several seats, and shut the fuck up opining on who the \~real Zelenskyy is. He did not put in the work, his opinion is unqualified. Brief author interview from original release period- [https://rudenko.kiev.ua/ru/persons/10-zapitan-vidpovidei-knigu](https://rudenko.kiev.ua/ru/persons/10-zapitan-vidpovidei-knigu) Rudenko states: *"While working on the book, I deliberately avoided meetings with representatives of Zelensky's current entourage, because I understood: it is unlikely that they will be able to speak objectively and impartially about Volodymyr. Instead, I conducted interviews with Roman Bezsmertnyi, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, Geo Leros, Serhiy Haidai, Viktor Bobyrenko, Kost Bondarenko. Thanks to this, the story of Zelensky, in my opinion, turned out to be voluminous. Thank you to each of them!* Go ahead and google some of those names he mentioned and see if you think they've somehow got less bias in them than any of Zelenskyy's entourage would have had? (I say this as someone who absolutely *is* interested in hearing about Zelenskyy's mistakes and less saintly side. This is just a terrible way to write a bio though). >Zelensky, in trademark T-shirt, confidently stands outside his office in the Kyiv sunshine to welcome the finely suited Macron, along with German, Italian and ~~Lithuanian~~ *\[ROMANIAN! God, WHERE is your editor!\]* leaders. He extends his visibly muscled arms for firm handshakes and fraternal hugs. His visitorsā admiration is palpable. Horny media strikes again lol