This is required viewing.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/volodymyr-zelenskyy-60-minutes-2022-04-10/The April 10, 2022 edition of 60 Minutes devoted two of the three segments to an interview with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about his leadership of the fight against the Russian army and Zelenskyy's wishes for additional military aid.
Even through a translation, several things are apparent from listening to him.
He is the clearest speaking leader on the planet right now. There is no prevarication or hesitancy about anything he says. He doesn't blow off obvious questions that cannot or should not be answered with platitudes and old tropes. When asked if he is willing to give up territory to halt the fighting, he looks the interviewer in the eye and immediately says "Overall, we are not willing to give up our country. We have already given up a lot of lives so we need to stand firm for as long as we can but this is life.... This issue would definitely be raised in the course of negotiations, we understand the Russian side... but we were not willing to give up our territory from the beginning. Had we been willing to give up our territory, there would have been no war."
When asked what victory would look like, Zellenskyy immediately said he wants his fellow citizens to return to Ukraine. "They will come back. The return of refugees is blood to the body of Ukraine. Without them, there is nothing."
At the end of the face to face interview, Scott Pelley says he wishes Zellenskyy all the luck in the world in the fight for his country. Zellenskyy pauses for a microsecond and says "Even half will be enough."
The circumstances he faces and his communication and leadership in them make it clear he is not just a once in a generation politician or public figure. He is a once in 100-200 years figure. Ninety nine percent of the leaders and politicians on the planet right now cannot hold a candle to him. The entire world is lucky to have him in the position he is in right now. The only question is whether enough other leaders can show similar guts and identify tactics to end the fighting instead of using the war for economic fear mongering in domestic politics and further imperil Western resolve.
One side note... It seems pretty obvious that had Trump not publicly hung Zellenskyy out by slow-walking delivery of previously approved US arms to Ukraine, Putin would have not seen that cynical ploy as confirmation that the West would look away and allow him to swallow Ukraine whole. Trump's disastrous four years will haunt the entire WORLD for decades to come in ways we cannot fathom.
WTH
