President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine was losing popularity at home for months, seen by many as a thin-skinned leader who had concentrated power around him. Political opponents saw an opening to win a future election against him. His former top general in the war against Russia had a higher approval rating.
Enter President Trump. In recent weeks, he has echoed Moscow’s talking points on the war and called Mr. Zelensky a “dictator without elections” who “has done a terrible job.” Mr. Trump and his allies have demanded new presidential elections in Ukraine, despite the war, and humiliated Mr. Zelensky at a disastrous meeting in the White House.
But Mr. Trump’s actions appear to have helped the Ukrainian leader at home.
Mr. Zelensky’s approval ratings have risen, according to two recent polls, and his political opponents have said publicly that now is not the time for elections. Suggestions by political opponents and some analysts that Mr. Zelensky should share power and form a coalition government — a Ukrainian team of rivals — have not gained traction. And even if critics haven’t exactly rallied around the president, they haven’t outright attacked him.
“Some people expected me to criticize Zelensky,” Petro Poroshenko, Mr. Zelensky’s predecessor as Ukraine’s president and a frequent needler-in-chief, said after the explosive meeting between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Trump. “But no, there will be no criticism, because that’s not what the country needs right now.”
Mr. Zelensky is still in a precarious position. He needs to somehow chart a path forward with a U.S. president who clearly wants to deal with a different Ukrainian leader.
Mr. Zelensky has offered to step down in exchange for peace or Ukraine’s membership in NATO. Political opponents have agreed that elections cannot be held while the country is at war, because frontline troops and Ukrainians outside the country cannot vote. But given that Ukraine was to hold an election in spring 2024, they will probably push for one if a cease-fire is reached — likely long before a final peace deal is inked. And opposition politicians seem to be biding their time, despite public calls for unity.
Mr. Trump has ratcheted up pressure on Mr. Zelensky ahead of a meeting planned for Tuesday in Saudi Arabia in which U.S. and Ukrainian officials are supposed to discuss steps that could lead to a peace deal with Russia. After a planned deal to share profits from Ukraine’s natural resources wasn’t signed amid the acrimony at the White House meeting on Feb. 28, Mr. Trump paused both U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine last week.
On Sunday, posts on X by Elon Musk, the billionaire ally of Mr. Trump, renewed fears in Ukraine that Musk might cut off his Starlink internet system, which he called the “backbone of the Ukrainian army.” He added: “Their entire front line would collapse if I turned it off.” However, he later said “no matter how much I disagree with the Ukraine policy, Starlink will never turn off its terminals.”
Analysts said the White House meeting was probably the biggest crisis that Mr. Zelensky had faced since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Several said there was probably nothing Mr. Zelensky could do because Mr. Trump had chosen to side with Russia. But others suggested several paths for Mr. Zelensky: appointing an official negotiator to deal with Mr. Trump, setting up a more inclusive coalition government or even using a translator.
Yevhen Mahda, a political scientist in Kyiv, said that if Mr. Zelensky built a “coalition of victory from separate parties that unite,” with professional appointees instead of political allies, it would show the world and the United States that Mr. Zelensky could adapt.
Dmytro Razumkov, a politician who left Mr. Zelensky’s party in 2021 and now leads an opposition group in Parliament, said such a coalition should have been formed when the war started, but the president didn’t want to work with his opponents.
“He is not listening to other points of view,” said Mr. Razumkov, who has announced plans to run for president but also opposed holding elections until a peace deal is reached. “He cannot hear them. He cannot work with other parties and other ideas.”
But members of Mr. Zelensky’s party and some analysts dismissed the idea of a coalition.
“Those opposition parties will not focus on Ukraine or on how to help the country,” said Volodymyr Fesenko, a leading political analyst here. “They will focus on future elections. And all those opposition politicians have a very big level of national distrust.”
There are signs that Mr. Zelensky is trying to allow different voices to be heard. For instance, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s top military commander for the first two years of the war, would probably be Mr. Zelensky’s strongest possible opponent in an election. He has rarely spoken publicly since being named ambassador to the United Kingdom last March, effectively sidelining him, even as polls have shown that he’s more popular than Mr. Zelensky.
But on Thursday, Mr. Zaluzhny delivered a speech in London in which he blamed the United States for destroying the world order. Political analysts said Mr. Zaluzhny never would have given that speech if Mr. Zelensky had not agreed to it.
While some politicians and analysts described Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance as bullies at the White House meeting, some focused on Mr. Zelensky, suggesting that the Ukrainian president would have benefited from using an interpreter.
While he speaks English at a conversational level, an interpreter would have given him additional time to weigh his responses, Mr. Mahda said.
Mr. Razumkov, the politician who left Mr. Zelensky’s party, said he thought there might have been language misunderstandings between the two sides. “This whole conversation went wrong from the very beginning,” he said.
A date for a presidential election seems to be a moving target. If a cease-fire deal is reached, Mr. Trump will likely push for new elections even before hammering out a peace deal.
Were an election held today, Mr. Zaluzhny and Mr. Zelensky would likely be top contenders.
On Friday, the Kyiv International Institute for Sociology released a poll showing that between Feb. 14 and March 4 — when relations between Ukraine and the United States soured — the level of trust in Mr. Zelensky increased to 67 percent, from 57 percent in the first half of February. Another poll showed a similar jump, while two other recent polls showed similar approval ratings for Mr. Zelensky. (While approval and trust ratings aren’t the same as electoral ratings, they show how popular the country’s different leaders are.)
Mr. Zelensky’s ratings could have jumped because Ukrainians are rallying around the flag, and not because of the president himself. Mr. Zelensky also saw a huge bump in his approval rating after Russian’s full-scale invasion.
Both Mr. Poroshenko, who lost to Mr. Zelensky in 2019, and Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister, have indicated they would run in a future election. Both have met with Mr. Trump’s team. Ms. Tymoshenko traveled to Washington around the time of Mr. Trump’s January swearing-in, and attended some inaugural events. Mr. Zelensky did not attend the inauguration, but reportedly sent a close ally.
After Politico reported last week on meetings between Mr. Trump’s allies and the Ukrainian politicians or their representatives, Ms. Tymoshenko and Mr. Poroshenko denied they were trying to oust the president, and said they opposed elections while fighting continues. Ms. Tymoshenko said her team was “talking with all our allies who can help in securing a just peace as soon as possible.” Mr. Poroshenko said his team had talked with U.S. officials but opposed Mr. Trump’s demands for wartime elections.
The United States and Ukraine continue to negotiate, on both a possible natural resources deal and any peace pact. On Friday, Mr. Zelensky said “the most intensive work to date has been ongoing with President Trump’s team at various levels — with many phone calls.”
In at least one way, Mr. Zelensky is choosing to navigate the path ahead delicately. On Tuesday, senior members of his team are to have their first in-person meeting with U.S. officials since the White House meeting. They will meet in Saudi Arabia to discuss laying the groundwork for any peace deal.
Mr. Zelensky will travel to Saudi Arabia but is not expected to play any formal role in the talks with the Americans.
Oleksandra Mykolyshyn contributed reporting from Kyiv, and Kenneth P. Vogel from Washington.
