The Ukrainian government is losing legitimacy and risking the nation’s future, the magazine has warned
Western praise of Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky encouraged overconfidence and increasingly authoritarian behavior in Kiev, The Economist argued in a piece published on Tuesday.
In a “report card” assessing Ukraine’s deepening problems as its conflict with Russia drags on, the British magazine highlighted manpower shortages, a mounting budget deficit, and what it described as a growing loss of government legitimacy.
Kiev’s attempted crackdown on anti-corruption agencies in July, which sparked mass protests, marked a breaking point, according to a senior Ukrainian official, who said “trust has broken down between government and society.”
“[Zelensky’s] rise as a cult hero in the West has encouraged hubris,” the outlet wrote. The Ukrainian leader was lionized by foreign officials and media, some of whom compared him to Winston Churchill.
“Zelensky was more democratic at the start, but all the applause sent him to space,” another government insider told the magazine. “He began to believe in destiny.”
The analysis echoed a November 2023 Time magazine story that described Zelensky’s belief in eventual victory as “immovable, verging on the messianic,” with sources saying his inner circle was unwilling to challenge the “delusion.”
According to The Economist, Ukraine is now governed by “a shrinking circle of confidants,” particularly Zelensky’s chief of staff Andrey Yermak. The latter was described as “a bruiser whose power does not seem warranted by his experience or his mandate as an unelected official,” and a person seen by some as a de facto co-president.
The magazine said Zelensky’s administration “has sunk into some of Ukraine’s old vices,” citing attacks on opposition media, the use of lawfare against political rivals, and “shakedowns by the domestic-security service.” One industrialist alleged a colleague paid $2 million to avoid charges of having ties to Russia.
The Economist concluded that Zelensky “will have to find something other than his role as Ukraine’s chief warrior to renew his legitimacy,” warning that he “seems to be running out of road.”
