Posted on the official President’s website, Zelensky’s Le Figaro interview highlights his views on a range of issues. When asked if “the work with the theater, the stage similar [to presidency]?” the Ukrainian president said “this is very difficult stage”.

“There is something similar. In fact, sometimes you need… Theaters are different. Sometimes you can get into a theater where the audience behaves differently, for example, people start talking on the phone, and something happens on stage. It’s the same here. You have to work on this “stage”, despite what sometimes happens around.

Describing his attempts to reform the country, Zelensky compared it to climbing up a mountain and cited his own “climbing” experience:

“I know from life experience: if you go up to the top, and I’ve done it several times in my life, you don’t have to carry a heavy backpack. You will go very slowly, and then it is definitely not about reforms. So I go without this luggage, I have no experience of climbing, and I have a goal – only forward. Sometimes I’m confused about climbing this mountain in some issues, but I’m definitely leading the country quickly and only upwards. I do not want, however, to fall in the end.

In his view, advancing reforms in Ukraine is difficult, because “there are many different people and forces – both outside and inside, who do not want to see a powerful country”.

“As independent as possible. Preserving your history, writing, traditions, your face as much as possible, because it is always easier to manage the same. I understand that in many issues Ukraine does not march in step, and therefore all these forces from the very beginning (of independence – ed.) put pressure on our country”, stressed the president.

In his interview, Zelensky sent a strong message to the Ukrainian ultrarich blaming them for “plunder” of the economy and its subsequent difficulties: “When Ukraine gained independence in the early 1990s … it was plundered not only from the outside, but also from the inside by many people who are now respected businessmen

“I consider them just bandits, that is, they have become multimillionaires or billionaires on what was left of the Soviet era – enterprises. They did not build them, but simply took them away, “raided” them. Those were the times. And these people are financial groups”, he expalained.

Yet again he reinstated his election promise that “we need to fight all these groups”.

The recent polls show a steady decline of Zelensky’s approval rates. According to Razumkov sociological center survey, 42% Ukrainians called Zelensky the biggest disappointment in 2020.