Posted on 09/13/2025 3:00:11 PM PDT by EnderWiggin1970
Polling shows Zelensky trailing rivals, mired in corruption woes, and stalling peace talks—his halo fading fast at home and abroad.
You won’t hear this from the mainstream press, but you’ll hear it here first: Volodymyr Zelensky, the Western media’s darling, is in real political trouble at home. I just commissioned credible polling from inside Ukraine. The war-weary population there wants a new president and a negotiated peace.
This reality makes Zelensky less a heroic statesman and more a vulnerable incumbent with a perverse incentive: to keep slow-walking peace, continue milking Western taxpayers, and delay the elections he’s almost certain to lose.
The Best Data We Have
To learn the truth within Ukraine, we used experienced pollsters who surveyed more than 1,000 citizens. These results represent the clearest and most reliable snapshot of Ukrainian opinion:
In a hypothetical presidential election against General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Zelensky loses by -13 points.
Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s former armed forces chief, isn’t even in the country. He now serves as ambassador to the United Kingdom—an appointment widely seen as a “consolation prize” from Zelensky meant to marginalize his most popular potential rival. But that move has backfired badly: instead of diminishing Zaluzhnyi, it has only underscored Zelensky’s insecurity and boosted the general’s stature. A man sidelined abroad now leads him by double digits.
71% of Ukrainians say corruption is one of the country’s major problems. Just 1% say it isn’t serious.
A majority, 53%, view Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, as corrupt. Only 15% disagree.
By contrast, 64% of Ukrainians do not view Zaluzhnyi as prone to corruption.
77% want the war to end through diplomacy alone or through a combination of diplomacy and military action. Only 13% favor a purely military solution—the maximalist line Zelensky and Yermak promote.
(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...
Ah, and Putin’s Russia is not corrupt in the slightest and no part of the problem at all. /sarc
Biography of leader of “American Greatness”
A contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, he has also written for the Washington Post, SpectatorWorld, USA Today, The Hill, The New Criterion, and other publications. He is a frequent contributor to Fox News, NPR’s “Morning Edition,” PBS Newshour, and “Hardball” and regularly appears on CNN.
There is too much money involved in Zalensky remaining in power. Polls showing him trailing are bogus. He is particularly popular among the recently deceased. If elections can’t be postponed he will have to rely on his Venezuelan voting machines. There is also the possibility that his opponents might be assassinated. Are they suffering from depression? Have they written their suicide notes yet?
“Ah, and Putin’s Russia is not corrupt in the slightest and no part of the problem at all. /sarc”
Who said they weren’t? Not this article. They are corrupt too. It doesn’t excuse the Ukraine. Ukraine is the country demanding money from us, not Russia.
Ukraine ping
[The United States gave $175 billion to the wholly corrupt Zelensky regime. And none of this money was in the form of loans, an unprecedented act in US history.
Great Britain did not finish paying back their World War II loans to the US until 2006.]
Equipment that was destroyed was written off - Lend Lease recipients did not have to pay for it. This was done on a honor system. If they said something was destroyed, we took their word for it.
Did Russia say equipment was destroyed that wasn’t? Is a Communist regime that steals from its own people and murders them by the millions averse to stealing from random foreigners? Is the Pope Catholic?
Some of what Stalin kept was used to help his BFF Mao Tse-tung defeat Chiang Kai-shek, who inflicted well over 90% of the 1m+ KIA Japan sustained in Burma and China proper, but also lost 3m+ friendly dead, and huge amounts of US equipment destroyed in battle.
The thing about US aid for Russia that should stick in anyone’s craw is that this was a mass-murdering regime that sought to conquer not just the US, but the entire world. Then it was Germany’s ally in kicking off WW2, by jointly invading Poland. It fought Germany only after being invaded, and spent around 3/4 of the war fighting on its own soil, trying to regain lost territory, because the alternative was complete extermination.
The real kicker? After generous American aid crucial to its survival, not just of the regime, but of its population, Russia supplied and financed Communist Korea and Vietnam in two wars that killed 100K GIs. It even supplied servicemen to assist in the killing, with Russian pilots ambushing Flying Fortresses over Korea, and Russian SAM operators shooting down US planes over Vietnam.
Putin’s polling is better than Zelenskyy. /s
Thanks Zhang Fei.
[There is too much money involved in Zalensky remaining in power. Polls showing him trailing are bogus. He is particularly popular among the recently deceased. If elections can’t be postponed he will have to rely on his Venezuelan voting machines. There is also the possibility that his opponents might be assassinated. Are they suffering from depression? Have they written their suicide notes yet?]
Trump’s effort to find a Ukrainian candidate amenable to an Anschluss with Russia is unlikely to bear fruit because Ukraine likely needs to approach WW2 levels of dead (~7m) before defeatism takes hold. Europe is prepared to continue its minimalist approach to the war for decades, if necessary, because the annual cost is about what the US spent in the GWOT - $100b - for 20 years running. It is getting good value for its money relative to the GWOT, since the US was fighting part-time guerrillas directly, whereas Ukraine is taking on the #2 military on a shoestring budget.
Key details of the event:
Failed contact: Vance’s team reportedly contacted the Ukrainian embassy in London in early March 2025 to arrange a phone call with Zaluzhnyi, who was appointed ambassador to the UK after being dismissed as army chief. Zaluzhnyi declined after consulting with the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Motivation: Sources close to Zaluzhnyi indicated that he refused the contact to avoid being seen as supporting the Trump team over his own president. The contact came after a public dispute between Trump and Zelenskyy during a White House meeting on February 28, 2025.
Speculation: Following the clash, Vance and others in Trump’s circle were reportedly probing for potential alternatives to Zelenskyy. Zaluzhnyi, a popular figure in Ukraine, was widely seen as a potential political challenger to Zelenskyy.
This event is part of a series of political developments:
Allegations of a “blueprint”: According to some reports, Trump allies have been holding secret talks with Zelenskyy’s political rivals, with Zaluzhnyi considered by some to be the top choice for a replacement. These reports have been denied by the U.S. side.
Public comments on the U.S.: In March 2025, Zaluzhnyi openly criticized U.S. actions at a Chatham House event in London, stating that the U.S. was “destroying” the world order and making steps toward Russia.
Trump’s rhetoric: Donald Trump has criticized Zelenskyy and called for Ukrainian elections, rhetoric that has been interpreted by some as aligning with the Kremlin. In contrast, Zaluzhnyi has avoided public political announcements.]
—” Europe is prepared to continue its minimalist approach to the war for decades, if necessary, because the annual cost is about what the US spent in the GWOT - $100b - for 20 years running.”
“There has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited.”
Sun Tzu
The Chinese know well the long game; if Russia folds, China wins, and should Russia prevail, China wins BIG.
Russia can be stopped cheaply now. Why delay?
For a crackjack prize?
“You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you,” Trotsky
Putin’s polls are like the Dims mail in ballots = rigged.
Nothing “excuses” Putin’s invasion.
Whenever we point out anything bad with the Deep State or Ukrainian leadership, someone always plays this line to try to negate the evidence that the Deep State/Ukrainian leadership is corrupt. Your claims are false - for example, I consider Russia on the wrong side of most every geopolitical issue from Cuba and Venezuela and Nicaragua to the Sahel to Syria, Myanmar, China, Israel/Gaza and so forth.
Russia also has major corruption and could greatly improve its track record on civil liberties. All of which is to say, it is still in the right in defending Russia against NATO/EU aggression in Ukraine and the repression of Russians and Russian language, religion and culture in the 2014-2022 timeframe following the anti-democracy coup that deposed the elected Russophile government. Europe today (and the US prior to Trump and amongst the "resistance" that is still trying to control things) is under the control of people far more evil and repressive than Putin, and I continue to pray Trump switches sides rather than merely "washing his hands" and walking away.
“There is too much money involved in Zalensky remaining in power”
The same can be said for Putin, as he and the oligarchs backing him stand to lose more than anyone.
“following the anti-democracy coup”
There was “democratic” movement that ousted a Putin puppet who gained power via Kremlin subversion in Ukraine’s democracy.
You people, in grave error have no respect for the people of Ukraine and the anti-western narrative describing events - as if the people of Ukraine were ignorant of their own desires and demands and were just puppets of
“the globalists” is a narrative born in the Kremlin and is foreign to the people of Ukraine.
“Nothing “excuses” Putin’s invasion.”
Of course, that goes without saying, but you’re just trying to deflect from the article. You’re not rebutting the points. You’re doing it again, trying to excuse Ukraine’s faults by pointing at the Russians. My little kids used to do that when I caught them misbehaving. So grow up, crybaby.
But the kind of peace matters considerably: no one in Ukraine will accept anything like what Putin has suggested, which is little different from capitulation.
And if Zelensky were to accept anything looking like capitulation, he would be replaced by either the parliament or army in an instant.
I am not excusing Ukraine’s faults. They are not any basis Putin had for his invasion. Ukraine’s faults cannot be used to excuse Putin’s invasion.
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