It’s been a tumultuous four days in Ukraine, and with just under two weeks to go until the second round of elections, I expect things are only going to get weirder.
After Zelenskiy initiated the Ukrainian Debate Video Challenge of 2019 and Poroshenko granted him his stadium-style debate, Zelenskiy issued another video repartee, this time saying that a democratic debate must have a fair moderator. He nominated Yuliya Tymoshenko for that role. Yes, that Yuliya Tymoshenko. The very same former Prime Minister and third-place candidate for President who spent the entire campaign season lobbing insults at the President.
Given that this demand was never going to be met, many of us in Kyiv started to scratch our heads. It seemed that Zelenskiy’s bombastic tactics ran directly counter to his strategy during the first round, when he was loathe to engage outside of the realm of social media. Further, it felt like Zelenskiy’s latest demand was designed to give him an out from participating in the debate. Poroshenko called that bluff, too, releasing yet another video telling Zelenskiy to “stop hiding and be a man.”
On Friday, the campaign devolved into a literal pissing contest (h/t RFE/RL’s Chris Miller for this brilliant observation) as the candidates took separate blood and urine tests (Zelenskiy went to his own doctor, claiming the one that Poroshenko suggested was corrupt) to prove they were not alcoholics or drug addicts.
My fear, of course, is that this show business is detracting from the substance of the campaign. Ukrainians deserve to see these candidates describe and defend their policies, as parliamentarian Mustafa Nayyem wrote in an op-ed this week. Though he sympathizes with voters who seek the change Zelenskiy offers, Nayyem worries that “dressed in striking new suits, [Zelenskiy’s team] are playing the game by its old rules,” while “Poroshenko is trying to impose a completely different reality” on Ukrainians, ignoring the missteps his adminstration has made over the past five years.
Whether the debate will actually take place is, as of this Monday morning, still unclear, just like the policies that might govern Ukraine in a few months.