Who is the President of Ukraine? Volodymyr Zelensky (Read his Story)
A comedian, actor, screenwriter, film producer and director. Volodymyr Zelensky was born on January 25, 1978, at Kryvyy Rih, Ukraine. Who would have thought that Volodymyr Zelensky will one day become a president? Well, you read it right. He is the current president of Ukraine! On April 21, 2019, he was elected as president of Ukraine with an impressive 73 percent of the vote. Being a political novice, his anticorruption platform gained a widespread support. He won a landslide victory over the incumbent Petro Poroshenko in the 2nd round of the 2019 presidential election. The first year of his service as the president of Ukraine was, same here in the Philippines, not a breeze.
On May 20,
2019, Mr. Zelensky was sworn in as president and used his inaugural address,
delivered in a mix of Russian and Ukrainian language, to call for national
unity. He also announced the dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada which is also
known as their Supreme Council. It was politically necessary as his victory in
presidency did not confer a legislative mandate, and being member of the Servant
of the People party, they did not occupy any parliamentary seats. Due to
this, a snap election was held on July 21, 2019 where Pres. Zelensky
characterized this Snap Elections as “maybe more important than the
presidential election”. His statement is
actually on point because if you have the majority of seats in the parliament,
you have the most political power. After the snap elections, the Servant of
the People won the majority of election with 254 of 450 seats. This marked
the very first time in Ukraine’s post-Soviet history that a single party can have
an absolute control over the legislative agenda.
With a history in show business, Pres. Zelensky was provided with a valuable platform for his presidential campaign by his former business partner, Kolomoisky. Due to Pres. Zelensky’s ties to Kolomoisky, it has been a subject of scrutiny. To mellow out this scrutiny, Pres. Zelensky reminded and vowed to everyone that there will be no special favors granted by his office to Kolomoisky. The billionaire, Kolomoisky, returned to Ukraine days before Pres. Zelensky’s inauguration and stated that he will not act as a “Grey Cardinal” that directs policy from behind the scenes.
At that
same year when Pres. Zelensky was inaugurated as the president of Ukraine, his
administration was caught in the center of a political scandal in the United
States. This scandal happened when a whistleblower in the American Intelligence
Community lodged a formal complaint regarding the actions of the U.S.
President, Donald Trump. The scandal contains Trump’s alleged withholding of a
significant military aid package to Ukraine. Unless an investigation was
initiated of the alleged wrongdoing by the former U.S. vice president Joe Biden
and his son Hunter Biden. Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, was included in the scandal
since he served on the board of Ukrainian energy conglomerate, Burisma
Holdings. Trump claimed that Joe Biden used his office to benefit his son,
Hunter. Of course, Trump has no evidence about his statement.
The
political scandal continues that year with the $400 million U.S. military aid still
in limbo and was finally release on September 11, 2019, the same year. At that
point, American lawmakers began to investigate further about Trump and the
details of his call with Pres. Zelensky way back on July 25th. The
contents of that call were when Trump allegedly attempt to pressure Pres.
Zelensky. That call was served as a basis for a U.S. House of Representatives
impeachment to Donald Trump that was opened on September 24, 2019.
Comments