Zelensky, former boxing champion, mayor of Kyiv

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko launched a right-wing cross against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for his “authoritarian” grip on the country.

Klitschko, a former boxer who won several world heavyweight championships, has been mayor of Kyiv since 2014 and compared Zelenskyy to Russian President Vladimir Putin during an interview with German news website Der Spiegel.

“At some point we will no longer be different from Russia, where everything depends on the whim of one man,” Klitschko said, with the Kyiv Independent reporting that he alleged that the mayor's post is seen as an obstacle to centralizing power through Zelenskyy's office.

The mayor also suggested that Zelenskyy is on his way out as Ukraine's president and that he is failing as a war leader.

Klitschko and Zelenskyy have “butted heads” since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, according to Fox News, which noted that Klitschko “praised Ukraine's mayors for being the strong leaders needed to protect their citizens while claiming that Ukraine had no leaders and was disorganized during the first months of the war”.

According to the network, the two men have not spoken to each other since Russia invaded Ukraine.

“Klitschko and Zelenskyy had a public falling out in November 2022 when the mayor criticized the president over the conditions of emergency shelters that were supposed to help residents with heat and electricity amid Russian bombing,” he inform the network. “After three people were locked out of a bomb shelter and killed during a Russian attack in June, Zelenskyy ordered an audit that found only 15 percent of Kiev's 4,655 bomb shelters were adequate and only 44 percent were free access”.

Zelenskyy is up for re-election in March 2024, but with the country under martial law, he has announced there will be no elections in the war-torn country.

Regarding the state of the war with Russia, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with German broadcaster ARD on Saturday: “Wars unfold in phases. We have to support Ukraine in both good and bad. […] We also have to be prepared for bad news.”

“The only thing we know is that the more we support Ukraine, the faster this war will end,” he added. “We have to realize that a victory for President Putin would be a tragedy for Ukraine, but it would also be dangerous for us. It is in our interest to do everything possible for Ukraine to win.”

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) predicted how the war would end during an appearance Sunday on “The Cats Roundtable” podcast.

“We will not like the outcome,” he said, before adding: “The only way to end this war is with a negotiated settlement.”

“Every day that goes by as this war goes on, more Ukrainians are dying, citizens and soldiers, more Russian recruits are dying,” Johnson explained. “I'm not happy about that. It destroys more Ukraine. So the sooner they come to a negotiated settlement, the better from my point of view.”

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