U.S. elites often hail Ukraine as a lone bulwark of democracy in the authoritarian wasteland that is Eastern Europe. President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to extend his expiring presidential term by keeping the country under martial law, however, is far from the tidy narrative of Ukrainian democratic behavior the American ruling class and their allies in the corporate media have tried to sell U.S. taxpayers.
According to the President of Ukraine’s official website, the Eastern European country’s leader is supposed to be “elected by the citizens of Ukraine on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage by means of secret ballot for five years.”
Zelensky, who first came into power in 2019, was due for another vote this spring. Instead of slogging through an election that his rapidly declining approval rating might mar, Zelensky opted to extend his term indefinitely.
“Ukraine doesn’t need to prove anything about democracy to anyone. Because Ukraine and its people are proving it through their war,” Zelensky declared in a New York Times article headlined “‘What’s the Problem?’ Zelensky Challenges West Over Hesitations.”
Zelensky’s fundamentally anti-democratic decision earned the blessing of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who suggested the election should not commence until “all Ukrainians, including those displaced by Russia’s aggression” can vote. American corporate media were also quick to defend Zelensky’s prolonged rule, saying an election is something Ukrainians have “little appetite” for.
For more than two years, the people running the U.S. government justified throwing billions of American tax dollars
