Over the last 30 years, many Ukrainians have asked when their nation will finally get its George Washington, a leader who can rally the people and lead it to victory.
I’ve usually told Ukrainian interlocutors that Washington wasn’t born a great man; he became one because of the trials of the Revolutionary War, when he demonstrated his ability to lead and to symbolize the American struggle. A Ukrainian Washington might emerge in a similar manner, and now perhaps he has.
Ukrainians’ question may have been answered by an unlikely candidate for the hero role: Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a comedian-turned-president, who many analysts — including me — considered would be disastrous for the country. He was elected in a landslide in 2019, and, like most Ukrainian presidents, proceeded to introduce some important reforms before getting bogged down by red tape, internecine power struggles, his own lack of experience — which many Ukrainians called incompetence — and the COVID-19 crisis.
