Alex Rubinstein and Max Blumenthal published an article on the Gray Zone and Consortium News under the above title. They describe the visit the newly elected President Volodymyr Zelensky made to the Donbas battle lines to try to bring peac to the country. THere he was confronted “the hardened veterans of extreme right paramilitary units keeping up the fight against separatists just a few miles away,” they write. “In a face-to-face confrontation with militants from the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion who had launched a campaign to sabotage the peace initiative called `No to Capitulation,’ Zelensky encountered a wall of obstinacy.
With appeals for disengagement from the frontlines firmly rejected, Zelensky melted down on camera. `I’m the president of this country. I’m 41 years old. I’m not a loser. I came to you and told you: remove the weapons,’ Zelensky implored the fighters. Once video of the stormy confrontation spread across Ukrainian social media channels, Zelensky became the target of an angry backlash.
