In April 2019, political novice Volodymyr Zelensky was elected the new President of Ukraine in a landslide victory. When Zelensky took over the presidency, he was faced by a host of immense challenges, including fighting corruption, reducing the clout of the oligarchs, and achieving a breakthrough in multilateral talks over the ongoing conflict in Donbass. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to an economic downturn and called for urgent and costly decisions, has only further aggravated Zelensky’s predicament.

In this episode of the PONARS Eurasia Podcast, Maria Lipman chats with Sergiy Kudelia and Georgiy Kasianov about the first year of Zelensky’s presidency and his administration's response to the COVID pandemic.