New Leader, Old Troubles
UKRAINE GREETED the news that it was in the middle of the most consequential scandal of the Trump administration with a collective shrug. “I read the transcript of the call—Trump didn’t pressure Zelensky,” my uncle, a retired engineer, told me one evening this fall while I was visiting Kiev. “The Americans are making an elephant out of a fly.” My aunt, stirring borscht at the stove, murmured in agreement.
Dysfunction still prevails in Ukraine, especially in the war-torn east; for the rest of the country, the challenges are financial.
To be sure, Ukrainians are used to surreal politics. Fifteen years have passed since Ukraine produced one of the biggest scandals of the post-Soviet era: a promising presidential candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, suffered dioxin poisoning after having dinner with Ukrainian security service officials, leaving him to campaign and protest for his eventual office with a face the color and texture of gravel. Nine years later, attention shifted to Ukraine again when clashes during a mass uprising in favor of European integration, known as the Euromaidan Revolution, claimed the lives of more than 100 people. Then came Russia’s seizure of Crimea and the outbreak of a separatist movement in the country’s east; seven percent of Ukrainian territory remains occupied. And this spring, Ukrainians elected as their president a comic named Volodomyr Zelensky, whose only political credentials were that he starred in a popular sitcom about a well-meaning history teacher who improbably ascends to the country’s highest office.
My mother is Ukrainian, and I have been visiting the country for more than 15 years. In that time, I’ve seen the kind of changes that don’t make for headlines: running water becoming available 24 hours a day, lights illuminating the streets at night. More and more of my relatives have money for the
