Once a popular wartime leader among Ukrainians, Zelenskyy’s shine fades
Al Jazeera
Russia’s full-scale invasion saw Ukrainians rally around the president but a corruption scandal has dimmed his appeal.
Kyiv, Ukraine – Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s fortunes have shifted since he was elected as an anticorruption outsider in 2019.
In the first months of Russia’s full-scale invasion, his defiance and everyman image won him global acclaim and overwhelming support at home.
But that unity, exhausted by four years of full-scale war, has given way to a more complex mood.
Now, while many Ukrainians still back him as an international figurehead, concerns about governance and corruption are reshaping his standing domestically.
In 2019, when Zelenskyy ran for president, he was a well-known comic actor, best known for playing a schoolteacher who wakes up to find he has been elected head of state after a video of him ranting against corruption, secretly recorded by his pupils, goes viral.
Diplomatic dispute escalates as Beijing and Manila present competing narratives in the contested South China Sea.
Lawmakers pledged allegiance to Bangladesh as hundreds of people gathered outside Dhaka’s parliament grounds.
Barca miss a chance to move above Real Madrid in the Spanish league as Catalan neighbours Girona climb to 12th.
Kremlin says the talks are likely to focus on the issue of Ukrainian territory that Russian wants Kyiv to cede.
Cubans suffer under a US fuel blockade as President Donald Trump calls the Caribbean country a ‘failed nation’.
The accident, near the town of Goppenstein, occurred as the region is under its second-highest avalanche warning, a level four out of five.
A group of 34 women and children holding Australian passports is forced to return to Syria’s Roj detention camp for ISIL relatives.
The US president’s comments come ahead of a second round of high-stakes talks in Geneva on Tuesday.
Hezbollah rejects calls to dismantle its arsenals north of Litani River, describing pressure to do so as a ‘grave sin’.
Pritzker steps down as Hyatt executive chairman, effective immediately, due to his relationship with the late sex offender.
These are the key developments from day 1,454 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.