Ukraine's Western backers fear the country's next president may prove ...
KIEV/BRUSSELS - Ukraine’s Western backers fear the country’s next president may prove unwilling or unable to accelerate reforms they have spent five years investing in, whoever it turns out to be.
“We certainly know what we get with Poroshenko,” one diplomat said. “We think we know what we’ll get with Tymoshenko. With Zelenskiy, we have no clue.” Successive rounds of sanctions on Russia show the West is still willing to stick its neck out for Ukraine, although a desire to prevent Russia from interfering in other former Soviet republics is also in play.
A Ukrainian president weak on reforms could tip the balance towards Russia while jeopardizing international funding and ties with a bloc that has given Ukrainians visa-free travel, a right some two million people have exercised in less than two years. For lack of a better choice, the EU has stuck to its principles of insisting on reforms and promoting Ukraine’s pro-Western aspirations rather than leaning towards any candidate.
But diplomats worry about his lack of experience and whether he is beholden to Ihor Kolomoisky, an oligarch on whose channel Zelenskiy’s show airs. The two deny being in cahoots. At a meeting with European ambassadors in February, Zelenskiy acquitted himself reasonably well, according to three diplomats present, playing down his career as a comedian and talking up his effectiveness as a producer and manager.
Even if his heart is in the right place, Zelenskiy might struggle to get reforms through a hostile parliament where as of now he has no MPs, diplomats said.
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