The arrogance of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is causing problems with Kyiv’s allies and he believes that, as his country is at war, he can do anything, his former adviser has claimed.
In a bombshell interview with Polish news outlet dorzeczy.pl, Oleksyi Arestovych slammed his former boss for his increasingly overbearing behavior and believes he has fallen victim to delusions of grandeur and a belief that he is all-powerful.
Arestovych cited Zelensky’s response to the ongoing diplomatic conflict over the dumping of Ukrainian grain as an example, accusing the president’s office of “behaving as if it has a decisive voice in the European Union rather than being a country aspiring to join the bloc.”
The former adviser, who himself is a possible candidate in any future Ukrainian presidential election, expressed his fear that Zelensky “has become deluded into thinking he now rules the globe.”
His diplomacy concentrates on making demands and using moral blackmail to claim Ukraine is fighting for the West, said Arestovych, who claimed this tactic may have been successful at the beginning of the conflict but is no longer effective.
“The West is increasingly irritated by Ukraine’s arrogance,” he added.
Arestovych claimed that Zelensky’s behavior had led to tension among Kyiv’s closest allies including Poland and Romania, while its relations with the U.S. and the U.K. have also cooled.
The West will continue to support Ukraine because it is in the West’s own interests to do so, but it may well stop supporting the current Ukrainian government and back an alternative, he warned.
However, Arestovych was dismissive of the argument that Ukraine was colluding with Germany against Poland, claiming that this is only purely due to the fact that Ukraine has no clear foreign policy under Zelensky.
Ukraine wants Germany to be a counter-balance to Russia and that is why Ukraine backs its ambitions of securing a permanent seat in the UN Security Council, the former advisor told the Polish news outlet.
Arestovych admitted that Poland could have gotten more out of Ukraine on issues related to the Volhynia massacre by pursuing a more transactional policy towards the country, but that would not have been beneficial to it in the longer term. “Even if Zelensky is ungrateful for all the help selflessly offered by Poland, Ukrainian people are grateful and that will be more important in the longer term,” he assured.
...
