A year into war, Ukraine's Zelenskiy defies Putin against the odds

Nor does Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched his "special military operation" in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022 and appears to be preparing for a long war. They underestimated his leadership qualities," said Volodymyr Fesenko, a Kyiv-based analyst who said Putin misjudged Zelenskiy. Anton Grushetsky, deputy director of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, put public trust in Zelenskiy at 70% to 80%. "Since Feb. 24, 2022, I am not the leader of the opposition, because both Zelenskiy and Poroshenko are soldiers. And all Ukrainians should unite not around personalities, but around Ukraine," Poroshenko told Reuters.