Weekly Wrap-Up: Promises, Polls, and the “Perfect Call” – One Year Since the Election of Zelenskyy

It’s been one year since the election of Ukraine’s comedian-turned-president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy campaigned on the back of his promises to fight corruption, dismantle Ukraine’s oligarch-owned economic system, and to end the war in the Donbas. He won the vote with 73% – a mandate for victory. And then, his party, Servant of the People – named after the eponymous TV show starring Zelenskyy himself – took enough seats in Parliament to become a mono-coalition. But one year later, have any of those promises come true, or is Zelenskyy fated to join Ukraine’s expansive list of failed reformists?

To talk about the results of Zelenskyy’s year in power, we’ll be turning to Svitlana Khutka, an associate professor at the Kyiv School of Economics and visiting professor at the Stanford University (2014-2017), and Oleksandr Suhsko, executive director at the civil society NGO International Renaissance Foundation.