In the wake of a damaging corruption scandal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is increasingly reaching out to potential political rivals as the prospect of an election becomes more likely.
On Thursday, Zelenskiy spoke with the man widely regarded as his biggest contender, former commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who’s now Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK. Relations between the two soured in 2024 after the failure of Ukraine’s counteroffensive the previous year culminated in the general’s ouster.
Earlier this week, the president also disclosed that he’d met other high-profile figures who are seen as having the potential to enter politics. Those included Serhiy Prytula, a former TV presenter whose charity donates to the armed forces, and popular nationalist activist Serhiy Sternenko.
The flurry of meetings is a sign that Ukraine’s president may be maneuvering to secure his position in post-war politics. What unites all of Zelenskiy’s recent interlocutors is their popularity and their roles as potential challengers in a vote, an analyst said.
“There is no doubt that this is happening in the context of potential presidential elections,” Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta Research Institute in Kyiv, told Bloomberg in a phone interview.
Fesenko said the object of the president’s meetings may be to try to bolster his reputation by associating himself with popular public figures. Zelenskiy may also be trying to improve ties with potential opposition leaders or attempting to draw them into his own camp as allies, according to the analyst.
Zelenskiy’s outreach efforts come as Ukraine discusses a peace plan with the US to be presented to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The 20-point blueprint obliges Ukraine to hold presidential elections as soon as possible after a ceasefire is reached — a demand echoed by US President Donald Trump. Putin has so far shown no willingness to end the full-scale invasion, which is approaching its fifth year.
Ukraine can’t hold elections under martial law. But with the vote a recurring topic in US-led peace negotiations, Zelenskiy recently asked lawmakers to work on legislation that would make it possible, albeit after a ceasefire.
That prospect comes at a delicate time for Zelenskiy. Although the president still enjoys the trust of most Ukrainians, his public image has recently taken a hit from the largest corruption scandal of his term in office.
At the end of last year, anti-corruption detectives disclosed an investigation into the misuse of funds earmarked for the defense of energy infrastructure. It implicated several people from the president’s inner circle, triggering the resignation of Zelenskiy’s influential top aide Andriy Yermak.
Zelenskiy then unexpectedly appointed military intelligence head Kyrylo Budanov as Yermak’s successor as head of the presidential office.
Budanov, one of the nation’s most popular wartime figures, had become known as the mastermind of audacious attacks deep inside Russian territory.
Yermak’s departure made the recent flurry of meetings possible, according to a person familiar with the matter. The president chose the format to be able to talk directly to different people and glean information from them, the person said.
One is Oleksandr Kubrakov, who had served as Ukraine’s deputy prime minister in charge of infrastructure until he was dismissed in 2024 after he was said to have clashed with Yermak. Zelenskiy met him on Friday evening.
More such sitdowns are planned, said the person, who requested anonymity to speak on sensitive matters.
Speaking to Bloomberg News on Friday, Prytula said he didn’t discuss political issues during his meeting with Zelenskiy. Instead, their conversation focused on legal hurdles faced by army volunteers, he said.
Zelenskiy has also sought to upstage potential challengers at home. When a recent series of Russian air strikes left many residents of Kyiv without power and heating in freezing weather, the president publicly stepped in to take control of the situation.
He blamed Mayor Vitali Klitschko, a long-standing opponent, for poor preparation and promised to ease the curfew to help protect residents from the cold.
If a vote were held in the near term, Zaluzhnyi would receive nearly 21% support, Budanov less than 6% and Prytula about 1.5%, a survey conducted by the polling agency Socis at the end of last year showed. Zelenskiy remains in the lead, slightly ahead of Zaluzhnyi, according to the same poll.
Another survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute for Sociology in December found that the corruption scandal in the energy sector had dented trust in Zelenskiy by 10 percentage points.
It added, however, that the country’s tough situation on the battlefield and in diplomatic negotiations has made Ukrainians “rally around the flag” before, bolstering the president’s popularity. As a result, trust in Zelenskiy remains “highly dynamic” as it’s dependent on an unpredictable political context, it concluded.
It’s still unclear who would run in a vote. Neither Zelenskiy nor his main opponent Zaluzhnyi have announced any presidential bid.
But recent meetings show Zelenskiy is preparing for that possibility, according to Fesenko. “He’s testing the waters and thinking about the future,” he said.