«There has been an unofficial agreement among Ukraine’s raucous and highly competitive politicians since Russia invaded: Put aside old differences and form a unified front against Moscow.
It’s been a remarkable shift in a country plagued by political infighting, corruption and Russian influence since it declared independence from the dissolving Soviet Union in 1991.
But now, as the war grinds on and billions of dollars in international aid pours in, cracks and prewar tensions are beginning to emerge between the central government and local leaders.
Recent frictions between President Volodymyr Zelensky, the highly popular wartime leader, and Ukrainian mayors who are trying to defend or rebuild their devastated cities and towns underscore Ukraine’s mounting internal challenges as it approaches six months of war. (...)
Ukrainian mayors have traditionally aligned themselves with the ruling national party to gain access, Lutsevych said. Many mayors have supported both former president Viktor Yanukovych, a Moscow ally who was ousted in Ukraine’s 2013-14 revolution, and his more reformist successor, Petro Poroshenko. In recent years, some mayors have opted to create their own personal political parties and alliances.
But while the party in power nationally has typically dominated locally, Zelensky’s Servant of the People party faired badly in the 2020 local elections. After having won a majority of seats in the parliamentary election the previous year, the party didn’t win a mayoral seat in any major city: Incumbents beat out Servant of the People candidates in 10 key mayoral elections. In a personal defeat for Zelensky, his party’s candidate for mayor in his hometown of Kryvyi Rih lost in a runoff even after the main opponent dropped out.
The war has boosted Zelensky, who now has wide public support. The president’s nightly addresses from the capital are credited with bolstering Ukraine’s morale, despite a war that has destroyed entire cities and towns across the country and cost countless thousands of lives. (...)»
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