Zelensky regains popularity and support of Ukrainians

The reporter and journalist María Senovilla, contributor to Atalayar, analysed on the programme ‘De cara al mundo’ on Onda Madrid the visit to Kiev of the former National Security Advisor to the Vice President of the United States, Keith Kellogg, to the Ukrainian President, Volodimir Zelensky, following the harsh statements made by Donald Trump.

In addition, he considered the opinions of the soldiers on the combat front regarding the possibility of European troops supporting the Ukrainian forces; and the harsh situation on the front line due to the continuous presence of Shahed drones.

Is Zelensky toning down the rhetoric with Trump a little in the last few hours? He even called an international summit in Kiev. 

Zelensky is toning down the rhetoric a little, but only because the special envoy for Ukraine-Russia affairs, the now-retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, also toned down the rhetoric when he arrived in the Ukrainian capital to meet Zelensky. A meeting that he did not share with the press because, at the last minute and at the express wish of the US side, the press conference he had called was cancelled. 

They limited themselves to a closed-door meeting and it seems, from the statements made by Zelensky at the end of the meeting, that it was in somewhat softer terms than those that had been used in recent days. In fact, it has been said that Ukraine is open to negotiating with the United States on security and investment, but after that first attempt at an agreement to exploit Ukraine's minerals, in which the United States demanded 50% in exchange for nothing, it is going to be quite difficult to reach agreements that are convenient for both parties. 

The tone has been lowered. Both teams, the US and the Ukrainian, know that they cannot burn the bridges that are being built at a time when efforts are being made to put an end to, or at least a ceasefire to, this war that is about to reach its third year. In any case, in the last few days there have been those inflammatory statements by Donald Trump in which he not only called Zelensky a dictator but also accused Ukraine of starting this war, as if three years ago the rest of the world had not seen live how Russia invaded this country with its columns of tanks. These are difficult ordeal to assimilate and the tension is growing. 

To my surprise, the response of the Ukrainian people to these attacks by Donald Trump, to this rise in tension, has been to unite around Zelensky, who has been reissued in the spirit of those first weeks of February and March 2022, when the whole people came together and decided that they were going to resist, that they did not want to cease to exist as a nation and that they were going to fight with whatever they had, which, at that moment, they had nothing. That spirit has been revived a little bit again.

What has been the reaction of the people?  

It has been diverse depending on whether you are in the cities or if you are on the front line. On the front line, the soldiers have become emboldened, that now they really are not going to surrender, that, if they did not surrender in those first weeks, when they had nothing, now that Ukraine produces 40% of the weaponry used on the front line and has three years of extremely intense combat experience, they are not going to be brought to their knees. 

On the other hand, in the cities, social networks and memes are a political communication tool that is more widely used than newspapers in this country. And all those messages that were posted on social networks were in unison with Zelensky. Some said that Zelensky's popularity over these three years of war has, of course, been falling, because these are three years of death, destruction, bombing, pain. No leader can bear that. Now he has suddenly risen. On social networks, the messages being sent were the kind of messages that they themselves would have insulted their president with when the war was over, but that now they were going to defend him against external aggression. 

It was a very fast reaction, very much in unison, which surprised me, and which is reminiscent of those first moments of the invasion, when the whole Ukrainian people united. 

Faced with what could be a crisis with the United States, how could you press the option of deploying European soldiers in Ukraine?  

While the rest are sending out messages internationally and organising summits, here on the front line, especially in the Donbass, the war is not stopping. It continues 24 hours a day, day and night, and is also more aggressive than normal because the Russian offensive has intensified. 

When I asked the soldiers if there was any possibility that European soldiers would come to help them, they looked at me with a certain scepticism and said that if they hadn't come in the last three years, they weren't expected to come now. And the phrase was, ‘we can only trust ourselves’. 

You were talking about those attacks, about the fact that the bombing activity in the last few hours has intensified quite a lot, hasn't it?  

They have intensified, not only against cities. Odessa and Kiev have been attacked several times throughout this week, with great destruction, also Kherson. Today we woke up to minus 19 degrees centigrade and in Odessa they were without heating due to the Russian bombings. But in this part of the Donbas Front, where I am, they have not stopped for a single day, neither day nor night. 

They are attacking us now with these FAB bombs and they are also attacking us with aeroplanes, because these bombs are dropped from aeroplanes, and with Shahed-type drones, which were not seen here before Christmas, they were basically dropped in the cities and now also in the cities behind the combat front. We can hear them buzzing around us every night and we can hear the anti-aircraft defences trying to neutralise them. And this is not going to go away, with the Russian offensive growing stronger with each passing day. 

They are putting everything they have. They told me on the front line, I have been covering the area around Torez for the last few days, that they are throwing everything they have at us, and in an almost disorderly fashion, because before an artillery attack would be launched when there was going to be an attempt to advance by the infantry, as if it were a classic orderly war. 

Right now, they are launching everything they have, attack drones, artillery, aerial bombs, without there being an attempt at infantry advance behind them. In other words, they are trying to soften up whatever they catch so that later on I don't know whether to advance or simply leave everything in their path destroyed and thus finish taking Dombás.