Okay Boomer, let me guess Ronald Reagan is your favorite president of all time.

My idea is that a great leader does what is good for the present and future of it's country and people, even if these decisions are very difficult and might cause trouble at first. Being nice and all smiles and defending beautiful things that the media loves is not necessarily being a good leader. Having said that, my list goes for:

1 - Zelensky, by far. the definition of balls of steel. even if he loses in the end, his example will live forever and we will look back in shame for not supporting him properly. If he wins he will be seen at the same level of Churchill.

Others: Milei, Ulf Kristersson, Bukele

Worst: Putin, Orban, Lula and King Jong, they are doing their best to destroy their countries

Probably also loved Agustin Pinochet. A lot of "freedom-loving" Americans loved that murderous fascist.

I see a lot of Zelensky in here, and I completely disagree about him. It's not his fault that Putin exists and is a fascist dictator, and I'd wish no one to be on his position; but his NATO allies fed him with delusions that Ukraine could actually defeat Russia in war, even though Ukraine was not allowed to user theirs weapons inside Russia because of nukes fear, and so this whole time Zelensky was not seeking to end the war, but to win the war. He never even attempted to strike any real deal with Russia. I am not talking about giving up territory, but did he even try to offer anything else, specially early on when Putin was more likely to accept something else?
Part of being a good leader is knowing how choose your fights, and this was never a fight that Ukraine had a chance at winning.

No they didn't. NATO has been pissing their pants the entire war. It was Ukraine's decision to fight back against Russia, even when NATO support was laughably poor, Ukraine has been technically fighting Russia since 2014  via Russian proxies in the Donbas while trying to diplomatically apply pressure to Russia after they stole Crimea off Ukraine in 2014!

Zelenskyy's approval rating was actually dropping pre-war in part due to Ukrainians believing he was being too compromising with Russia, there was a belief that Zelenskyy was preparing to surrender Donbas to Russia and being too soft with Russia. This is the same country that threw out one of their recent Presidents for being a Russian puppet via massive protests and violence. This was until Russia attacked Ukraine in a full scale invasion and Zelenskyy's approval rating then shot up once again as he refused to surrender to the modern day Hitler.

Ukraine fought back bravely when their support from NATO was far worse than it is now, Ukraine fought back when NATO refused to give them long-range missiles, modern MBTs, modern Jets, etc. Ukraine fought back because they had no other choice, it was fight back to defend their land, their freedom, or be slaughtered by Russia. Most other countries in the same position would do the exact same, as many countries did so against impossible odds during WW2 because if good doesn't stand up against evil and inspire others to do the same, that evil will spread.

They could have actually beat Russia if NATO's support wasn't so shit. It wasn't NATO that encouraged Ukrainians, it was Russia's utter shitshow of an invasion in the early stages, Russia by all accounts, on paper, should have steamrolled through Ukraine and took the capital with ease, instead they made a complete fuck up of their invasion and Ukraine pushed them back from Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv before NATO support even got serious, it was Ukraine who inspired Ukraine to believe that they had a chance while NATO drip fed them shit and "escalation managed" instead of actually tried to help Ukraine win a war.

Ukraine's own allies that you are claiming gave Zelenskyy hope that he could win the war, told him that Kyiv would fall in a week and begged him to flee the country believing that he would be assassinated, does that really sound like NATO fooled Ukraine into thinking they could win the war? At the start it was the opposite, NATO was (publicly) telling Ukraine they didn't have a chance!

So this whole time Zelensky was not seeking to end the war

Zelenskyy has repeatedly attempted negotiations with Putin, as has the West, Macron was practically on his hands and knees begging Putin to stop which made him look pathetic and everyone was mocking him for it but it was in fact Zelenskyy who asked Macron to help him in trying to convince Putin to stop and Macron's display that got him mocked was actually on direction of Zelenskyy.

What deal would be acceptable to Russia? You say not to give up territory but Russia for the past 1-2 years have been saying they demand Ukraine surrenders Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donestk, Luhansk and Crimea and officially recognise these territories as Russia. His whole reason for invading in the first place is because he wants a land grab to expand the Russian empire. He literally had a goddamn map showing that Ukraine "doesn't exist" and "was always Russian" and Ukraine was never a threat to Russia but he strolled in and slaughtered them.

Zelenskyy had repeated attempts at negotiation with Putin, Ukrainian officials, as did the EU on behalf of Ukraine. They all failed. Putin ignores most attempts to negotiate or tries to drag things out to make it look like he is negotiating, he broke multiple ceasefires, he rarely backed down from maximalist goals.

There was a close deal where Ukraine made multiple concessions but due to Russia's Bucha Massacre enraging Ukrainians, their military failure on Kyiv and a certain few extra demands which would have made Ukraine defenceless, it too failed. Most Ukrainian polls say that Ukrainians would not be willing to compromise on their land. Even right now Ukraine is the only one accepting a total ceasefire while Russia has rejected it.

Part of being a good leader is knowing how choose your fights, and this was never a fight that Ukraine had a chance at winning.

We need to stop thinking Russia is a mythical entity that has never lost a war and is incapable of losing wars. Ukraine absolutely has a chance if it was supported properly by NATO. Even right now, nobody is "winning" it's effectively a stalemate, Russia has lost multiple major battles in this war; The Battle of Kyiv, Kharkiv Counteroffensive, Kherson Counteroffensive, and multiple other withdrawals due to pressure from Ukraine.

What Russia wants is Ukraine's total surrender and to make them defenceless in the future so that Russia can repair its military and try again, as they did with Chechnya, the Ukraine war didn't start in 2022, it started in 2014, it started with Crimea, Russia fucked up the initial invasion so bad they want a pause but one which makes Ukraine defenceless for when they return. Ukraine would have to weaken its military and be alone, Ukraine would have to surrender its territory and Ukrainians be abused and killed under Russian rule.

It's also worth noting that the only person polling higher than Zelenskyy in Ukraine right now is Zaluzhnyi, an extremely popular military general who fought during the war, there's a very high chance that if Zelenskyy is too compromising with Russia, it ends up with him being booted out of office and an even more militaristic person being put in charge.

Zelenskyy is modern day Churchill and will be remembered in history as a legend. Though Churchill was only a good war time leader, I think as soon as the war is over and Ukraine is safe, Zelenskyy should retire but until that day he will work tirelessly to get Ukraine in a safe position. Thank God Churchill gave that whole speech about not surrendering though and didn't just say "Welp, Germany is too powerful, take Scotland and we'll dismantle our military, please don't hurt us later"

The West told him to flee his own country, he refused and asked for weapons instead, he sent his wife and children to safety and remained in Kyiv even when it was almost entirely surrounded, he knew that if he was to be captured, Russia would kill him immediately or send him to some Gulag like they do to all political opponents, Russia also attempted multiple assassination attempts on him.

He wasn't the best leader pre-war and he isn't even perfect during the war, he has made mistakes, anyone would though. But his love for his country is clear to see, the physical and emotional toll it is taking on him is clear to see. For years I've watched him get on his hands and knees and beg allies for support, for years I've watched him bite his tongue as certain leaders talk utter bollocks about him and his country but he bites his tongue because he knows his country needs their support.

Yeah he loses his cool occasionally, I think we all would, but he has still successfully managed to unite dozens of countries in support of Ukraine and juggle the complex political nonsense with being a wartime leader. Zelenskyy is the type of dude that I 100% believe would sooner die with his country than flee and watch it burn which I can't say of many other politicians.

He has worked, day and night, 24/7, for years now, in gathering support from Ukraine from dozens of countries, he has gone from a joking comedian to one of the best wartime leaders I have seen in modern history. He sits and suffers attack after attack from certain countries, and still goes and shakes their hands and tries to make deals with them because he knows Ukraine has no other choice.

He tried to negotiate with Russia multiple times, he tried to get them to stop, but the reality is, Russia won't stop until Ukraine is fully under their thumb, that may not be this year, it may not be next year, it may not even be in 10 years from now, Zelenskyy may not even be President anymore, but he is thinking of the future, and without security guarantees that future is Ukrainians under Russia's tyrannical rule.

The man could retire with his family and fuck off in some luxury house under 24/7 protection in some random NATO country if he wanted to but he didn't. And if people think Zelenskyy is the problem in achieving a peace deal, they're going to be in for serious whiplash when Ukraine elects a military general as their next President. He has also straight up offered himself in exchange for Ukraine in NATO. Showing that none of this is about him but Ukraine's safety, he is willing to step away entirely from politics to ensure that Ukraine is protected in the future.

*To be clear though, I am a fan of Zaluzhnyi and think Zelenskyy made a mistake in moving him out of the military.

He did stop Russia from conquering Ukraine and champions their freedom against tyranny. That's why so many people consider him to be the best leader today. No one else is doing anything quite like that for their country.

Churchill is a good comparison for Zelenskyy, although a different sort of leader that accomplishes the same level of resolve.

When I think of Zelenskyy, I think of Viktor Laszlo from Casablanca. It's a microcosm film about World War 2. Laszlo was opposed by the Americans for silly ego reasons - in this case, Rick withheld the plans because of jealousy over Ilsa, married to Laszlo, and wanted to keep her in Casablanca by keeping Laszlo there - But Laszlo held strong in defiance of the Germans.

Also, a bit of Trivia: the emotion in that scene isn't acted, Paris had fallen a couple years earlier, one actress you see in tears, Madeleine Lebeau had fled Paris with her Jewish husband as the Nazis rolled in. They made their way to Lisbon, and escaped to the US - this story made its way into the script of Casablanca.

And I can't post a scene from Casablanca without posting its ending:

Not sure if the Ukraine story will end this way or if Moscow's madness will end before it gets to this stage. But the ending of Casablanca with Renault throwing his Vichy water in the trash, then kicking it over is one of my favourite beats in cinema history. Right now, in our time, we have a lot of timid Chamberlains and cowardly Pétains (Trump, Orbán), and not enough Churchills, FDRs, and De Gaulles.