Would prefer Zaluzhny. Also as a president, for how Zelensky was an idiot who would complain in public for more than a month about the Americans desperately warning him that the Russians are coming to murder his people.

"White House Warnings Over Russia Strain Ukraine-U.S. Partnership" was actual New York Times headline from January:

“They keep supporting this theme, this topic,’’ President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said of the repeated warnings by American officials. “And they make it as acute and burning as possible. In my opinion, this is a mistake.”

Mr. Zelensky voiced his displeasure just hours before top U.S. military officials issued another dire appraisal of Ukraine’s predicament, saying that Russia has deployed sufficient troops and military hardware to invade all of Ukraine, far beyond a limited incursion into only the border regions.

There was a whole lot of this, from him personally and his administration.

Speaking at a news conference in Kyiv, Zelenskyy accused Western media reporting of undermining Ukrianians’ faith in their government and stoking economic panic across the nation.

He also said that although Ukrainian officials “don’t have any misunderstandings” with President Joe Biden, “I just deeply understand what is going on in my country, just as [Biden] understands perfectly well what is going on in the United States.”

The blunt responses from the Ukrainian president come after Biden and Zelenskyy participated in a call on Thursday that media accounts have described as tense, with Zelenskyy reportedly challenging Biden’s characterizations of the Russian threat.

He redeemed himself later, but Jesus Christ. Reminded me a lot of Rydz-Śmigły in 1939, that's not in how similarly they acted because they didn't at all but the sheer fucking stupidity in the face of a deadly threat.

Rydz-Śmigły later also kinda redeemed himself (at one point even stabbed a Gestapo agent to death with a cane blade after returning to Warsaw from London) but just no one cared about him at this point after the disgrace. I should also note that he took all responsibility for the disaster of September 1939 on himself.

When you put "Rydz-Śmigły" in Google bar in Poland, the first suggestion is "zdrajca" (traitor). Super harsh. It's also possible he was killed by his own (now rival) people who then staged a heart attack story.

Anyway:

His popularity has, according to some media reports, sparked jealousy from Zelensky’s entourage even though Zaluzhny has never signalled any political ambition and his public pronouncements are very rare.

He actually did have a TIME cover story: https://time.com/6216213/ukraine-military-valeriy-zaluzhny/