From Servant to Leader Chronicles of Ukraine Under the Zelensky Presidency, 2019–2024 Mykhailo Minakov, Andreas Umland, John Lloyd

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Minakov, Mikhail, Author.

Contributor:

Umland, Andreas, Editor.

Lloyd, John, Author of introduction, etc.

Series:

Ukrainian Voices

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ukraine.

Zelensky.

Local Subjects:

Ukraine.

Zelensky.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (293 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Hannover ibidem 2025

Biography/History:

Mykhailo Minakov is a senior advisor at the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute and a philosopher and scholar working in the areas of political philosophy, social theory, international development, and history of modernity. He is also the editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Ideology and Politics Journal, of the Kennan Focus Ukraine blog, and of the philosophical web portal Koinè. Minakov is the author of seven books, co-author of another six books, and of numerous articles in philosophy, political analysis, and history. Mikhail has over twenty years of experience in research and teaching in the universities of Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the United States.

Andreas Umland, M.Phil. (Oxford), Dr.Phil. (FU Berlin), Ph.D. (Cambridge), Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs in Stockholm, Senior Expert at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future in Kyiv, and Associate Professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

John Lloyd is Contributing Editor of the Financial Times, and Associate Fellow at Nuffield College Oxford.

Mykhailo Minakov is a senior advisor at the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute and a philosopher and scholar working in the areas of political philosophy, social theory, international development, and history of modernity. He is also the editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Ideology and Politics Journal, of the Kennan Focus Ukraine blog, and of the philosophical web portal Koinè. Minakov is the author of seven books, co-author of another six books, and of numerous articles in philosophy, political analysis, and history. Mikhail has over twenty years of experience in research and teaching in the universities of Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the United States. John Lloyd is Contributing Editor of the Financial Times, and Associate Fellow at Nuffield College Oxford.

Summary:

President Zelensky is not only a showman and politician. He is also a political phenomenon through which history revealed something very important about Ukrainian society. This book is dedicated to Ukraine under the presidency of Volodymyr Zelensky. It consists of columns, originally written for the Kennan Institute’s expert blog Focus Ukraine. Put together, these columns constitute a chronicle of a society surviving oligarchy, pandemic, and war with dignity and resilience – in spite of all the challenges of recent and current history.

Here is Ukraine’s recent political history viewed as it unfolded, often unpredictably, through the eyes of one of the best scholars of Ukrainian politics, society, and culture. Focused on leaders, state policies, public opinion, and international relations, this is a compelling story of uncertainty and possibility evolving into a story of disappointment and then catastrophe mixed with resilience and hope. This is political history rich in contingencies, personalities, ideas, and emotions. Mark D. Steinberg, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Contents:

Intro

Annotation

Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword: The Good Servant

Introduction

I. 1. Servant

The start of the presidential electoral campaign in 2019

Debates on war and peace in the presidential elections of 2019

Results of the first round of Ukraine's presidential elections

Expectations from the newly elected President Zelensky

I. 2. Winner

Delayed start of Zelensky's presidency

Parliamentary elections and political cleavages in Ukraine of the 2019 summer

President Zelensky establishes one-party majority

I. 3. Reformer

The first Zelensky's reforms and challenge for checks and balances

Zelensky's Achievements after the first six months in power

Zelensky meets Putin in Paris

Political struggle and media wars in the winter of 2019-2020

II. Master

New Zelensky's administration: arrival of Yermak and Shmyhal

Zelensky's version of perestroika and the oligarchs

Ukraine's politics in the fall of 2020

President Zelensky's personnel problem

Ukraine's politics in the first half of 2021

Zelensky's presidency at the two-year mark

Zelensky starts the fight against oligarchs

Waiting for the storm? Ukraine's political situation before the autumn of 2021

Three decades of Ukraine's independence: outcomes so far

The Afghanistan Syndrome and US-Ukraine Relations

Growing disenchantment with President Zelensky

Expectations from Ukraine's political processes in the beginning of 2022

Separatists threaten Ukrainian sovereignty

III. Leader

The start of the Russian war on Ukraine

First attempts of Ukraine-Russia talks

Zelensky versus Putin: the personality factor in Russia's war on Ukraine

The Kremlin's secessionist plans put Ukrainian statehood at risk

The first two months of the big war in Ukraine.

Ukraine's government tries to balance military and socioeconomic needs

Ukraine becomes EU member candidate

Ukraine's wartime political struggle continues with a new twist

The Russian annexation of Southeastern Ukraine

The war changes the Ukrainian oligarchy

Violent referendum in occupied territories of Southeastern Ukraine

Ukraine in center of the militarist remapping of Europe and Northern Eurasia

Further problems for Ukrainian oligarchs

Fighting corruption in wartime Ukraine

Further steps with Ukraine's EU membership goals in 2023

Ukraine's historical moment a year after the start of the war

The wartime constitutional process

Political struggle in the first half of 2023

The paradox of deoligarchization in post-Soviet Ukraine

Ukraine and the rise of the middle powers in the global interstate system

Russian local "elections" in the occupied Ukrainian territories

Pros and cons of elections in wartime Ukraine

Ukrainian society on the anniversary of twin tragedies

The Ukrainian military assistance is finally approved by the US Congress

Five years of Zelensky's presidency

Ukrainian politics reacts to the US electoral drama

Zelensky's six Independence Day speeches as milestones of his presidency

Epilogue: The Three Ages of Zelensky's Presidency

Key Literature and Sources.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9783838280028

3838280024

OCLC:

1511110299

Publisher Number:

9783838280028