Poroshenko renews attacks on Zelenskiy, tries to appeal to his base

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko renewed his
attacks against his rival in the presidential elections, comedian and actor
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, hammering at his political inexperience during an Apr. 8
political talk show on television. “Maybe he truly wants at least to declare
that the country move towards the EU and NATO,” Poroshenko said of Zelenskiy.
“But declarations aren’t enough! When the president is incompetent in this very
sphere and doesn’t have the experience of exceptionally difficult negotiations,
if he can’t try to travel and talk to Putin on his own, what will he return
with?”  

In the same show, Poroshenko appealed for the support
of Ukraine’s Russophile southeastern regions that overwhelmingly supported
Zelenskiy in the first round. He called for preserving Ukrainian statehood,
assuring them that no one will violate their rights to communicate in the
Russian language. “I understand you very well,” Poroshenko said. “I am a
Russian speaker myself. I was born south of Odessa. I have affirmed several
times that I used to speak Russian exclusively, and it’s absolutely natural for
me to speak Russian.”

In a separate event that was likely arranged to appeal
to southeastern voters, Yevhen Ryshchuk, the deputy head of the Kherson
regional administration, submitted a resignation letter on Apr. 8 in reaction
to NGO activists naming him a possible suspect in the acid attack and murder of
activist Kateryna Handziuk. Ryshchuk’s resignation came just days after his
boss, Andriy Hordeyev, submitted a resignation letter after speaking with the
president. Both officials led the state body that represents
the Presidential Administration in the Kherson region.

Zenon Zawada: The
strategy of the Poroshenko campaign is to continue striking at Zelenskiy’s
glaring weak point, which is his political inexperience. And there is no
argument more compelling in that regard than contemplating Zelenskiy seated at
a table across from Russian President Putin, an image that Poroshenko will
continue to repeatedly try to provoke in the minds of the public. This campaign
strategy is critically important if Poroshenko is to narrow his wide gap
against Zelenskiy.

At the same time, Poroshenko has been adopting many of Zelenskiy’s positions,
as well as trying to appeal to his electoral base in the southeastern regions,
such as last night’s call for protecting Russian language rights. In doing so,
he is trying to pick away at those Zelenskiy supporters – who otherwise share
public concerns about his inexperience – by assuring them that he will also
defend their key issues, such as language and achieving peace in Donbas.

On the one hand, the strategy is effective because the
president won’t lose most of his electoral base in watering down his message.
Poroshenko’s voters are already strongly motivated to vote for him, if even for
the simple goal of stopping Zelenskiy. On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine
someone concerned about Russian language rights – or willing to capitulate to
halt the war – voting for Poroshenko when his campaign theme was “Army.
(Ukrainian) Language. Faith.” And for every Zelenskiy supporter he might sway,
the president could lose a disgusted nationalist.

In this sense, it will be interesting whether
parliament will approve the Ukrainian language law before the runoff vote,
scheduled for Apr. 21, or whether the president’s faction – the largest in the
Rada, which has led the legislative effort – will take the advice of the
Council of Europe and postpone it until after the elections. The law is widely
criticized by Russophile Ukrainians for violating their rights, even extending
Ukrainian language requirements into the private sphere.