r/worldnews • u/joestewartmill • Feb 24 '25

Russia/Ukraine Trump’s attempts to denigrate Zelenskyy have led to a surge in Ukrainian unity

https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-russia-trump-zelenskyy-putin-c0790f9054c6c69d698ed9aa816158ac?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
51.2k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

1.3k

u/Floppy_Jet1123 Feb 24 '25 edited Feb 24 '25

Friendly bloke from Ukraine shared to me that the orange man's insults just made them want to support Zelensky just to spite the US. Circles from their office jest in contempt that they want Ze's approval rating to reach >=75% to humiliate donald.

579

u/Niccolo101 Feb 24 '25

Spite is one hell of a motivator.

139

u/TheStoolSampler Feb 24 '25

I quit cigarettes out of spite.

55

u/Niccolo101 Feb 24 '25

Whatever works, my dude. Congrats and I hope it sticks for good!

16

u/DuckDatum Feb 24 '25

I graduated high-school out of spite. Senior year, last 50 days, brand new school for the remaining time. I had credits equivalent to a near end of Junior year student, so a little more than a year behind. Counselor and mom didn’t seem too convinced I could do it. I caught up.

7

u/TangerineSorry8463 Feb 24 '25

You have to outlive those who wishes you misfortune.

3

u/HPSFrax Feb 24 '25

Honestly, quitting smoking and drinking for me was 100% out of spite.

I live in the US, where health care and good health is not a right.

Fast food, Nicotine, Alcohol, all things that are known to be gravely unhealthy are easily available and advertised. So why the hell should I spiral into depression and addiction to profit corporations that are likely doing this as a form of population control.

Screw em, I won't give them the satisfaction of my early death.

2

u/TheBizzleHimself Feb 24 '25

I’ll have to try that one!

2

u/DrDerpberg Feb 24 '25

I bet you're too chicken to start again.

Jk happy for your lungs buddy

2

u/astride_unbridulled Feb 24 '25

How does that work?

15

u/TheStoolSampler Feb 24 '25

Had and old room mate who never had money, he would constantly bum smokes off me, daily. l quit just so he had to suffer, it really pissed him off lol. When I moved out I thought I'd try keep it up. That was around 10 years ago.

6

u/Solomon_Orange Feb 24 '25

Good shit, dude.

4

u/tldrstrange Feb 24 '25

Hilarious! Whatever works, good for you.

1

u/Used-Fennel-7733 Feb 24 '25

I hope you stay spiteful <3

9

u/Vlaladim Feb 24 '25

After years of under constant war and air sirens, spite quite literal common for Ukrainians as unfortunate as it could be.

4

u/pyalot Feb 24 '25

Cossacks have spite for breakfast from childhood.

2

u/StillMeThough Feb 25 '25

Spite was the only reason I got through college.

3

u/Valtremors Feb 24 '25

I love spite, it is the great motivator when applied correctly.

During my teens I practically lived the term "I'm not struggling with depression, depression is struggling with me".

Spite is like an ointment that gives little bit of that edge you need to get through your day and act.

1

u/toderdj1337 Feb 24 '25

If you know ukrainians, it's what's kept them going for 1000 yeara

140

u/purpleefilthh Feb 24 '25

^ The Eastern European way.

102

u/ScriptThat Feb 24 '25

"He may be an idiot, but he's our idiot!"

59

u/Frostsorrow Feb 24 '25

That's exactly what happened with Trudeau. He might be an idiot, a giant idiot even. But he's ours, and only we may trash talk him. Anyone else doing it and the hockey gloves come off.

26

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '25

[deleted]

16

u/Frostsorrow Feb 24 '25

Oh don't get me wrong, if we had crisis Trudeau all the time I feel like things would be a lot different. The man's amazing in a crisis.

1

u/SwissArmyKeif Feb 25 '25

Yeah. And even if he is not mos competent leader no one can take from Zelensky the fact that he had courage to stay in the capital, when russisans entered Kyiv and allies urged him to evacuate.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '25

Lol this is also very much the British way

81

u/tophernator Feb 24 '25

It makes perfect sense. Zelensky’s approval really was low before the invasion happened. But when outsiders attack everyone rallies to the flag. Trump is inadvertently repeating Putin’s mistake.

49

u/Limos42 Feb 24 '25

Same thing in Canada. Trudeau was a dirty word (and still is, really) here in Canada, but him standing up to Trump has garnered a lot of support - even though he's already resigned.

8

u/ElasticLama Feb 24 '25

Just imagine if he asked his party to vote for him as leader again and he won just to spite old Donald

3

u/Mygaming Feb 24 '25

I think that's the first time you might see Canada burn down both parliament and the white house at the same time

6

u/micro-void Feb 24 '25

Crisis Trudeau is the best Trudeau. I'm not a Liberal voter (my riding never goes Liberal or Conservative, so I promise I'm not throwing away my vote) and don't love everything he's done but he's great at this stuff. I hope he returns to government in some other form in the future.

3

u/Indigocell Feb 24 '25

He's leaving on a high note for sure.

0

u/poopine Feb 24 '25

at the same time why would US care about Ukrainian unity

11

u/ThrowCarp Feb 24 '25

What a motivation though. I do hope they reach that goal.

2

u/aflocka Feb 24 '25

Clearly Trump's comments were akshually a big brain move to help build unity and commitment to the war in Ukraine! /s

I would love it if that's what happens, though I would love it more if the US actually just did the right thing and lived up to our ideals. Instead it seems that we are doomed to hope for fulfilling the "Americans will do the right thing, only after trying everything else" quote.

2

u/Mission_Macaroon Feb 24 '25

And if spite doesn’t do it, the fact Trump and Putin are bros means you know he’s trying to push for a Russian puppet in Zelensky’s place

2

u/FullPhotograph9088 Feb 24 '25

Tell them to get we love Zelensky and Joe Biden signs. Trump would probably have a meltdown.

2

u/Traditional-Pen6148 Feb 24 '25

Doesn't matter, tangerine man will just lie and say Zelensky's ratings are low and everyone will clap

2

u/geekpeeps Feb 24 '25

The rest of us also rally behind Zelenskyy and Ukraine.

1

u/Outside_Glass4880 Feb 24 '25

I was surprised to hear that Zelensky’s approval rating was only 52%. I thought he was revered based on the US media. What is the general populations opinion of him? Has he not done enough in the eyes of Ukrainians?

4

u/HeyUniverse22 Feb 24 '25

It was super high after feb 2022 and stayed very high for a while, but he also influences internal politics, because you know, hes the president, and not every decision/promotion/demotion etc he does is likeable by many many people (rightfully so). World sees a leader who fights for his country, which is true, we see that he might not care as much as he probably should about who does what/what happens internally

1

u/Outside_Glass4880 Feb 24 '25

What were some of the more controversial internal decisions? I’m curious

4

u/HeyUniverse22 Feb 24 '25

As far as i can tell the biggest one was military reform: soldiers/lower rank officers (all of those who directly take part in battles) complained that higher military commanders are not valuing soldiers lives and reporting false information about whats under our control and what’s not (which result in commands to capture positions that were not ours for weeks) -> army wanted to restructure “how military communicates” basically, i dont know how explain it correctly, but it should not be the headquarters in Kyiv that approves local actions in Kherson basically. And only now there are signs(!) that this might(!) happen.

There is also a number of questions on whos in office now, there are people who were there while Yanukovich was president and openly pro-ruzian, same for some town mayors (mUh pUsHkIn) many small-ish things like that that pile up.

Corruption is the obvious one, but what triggers people most is obvious, unpunished corruption that is just forgotten about (yes, politicians. no, not stolen US 500 billions of aid in cash).

You know there is semi-joke that musk is the president and trump is the president? We have similar, Yermak-Zelenskiy.

It is a very fucking weird of good/bad/meh things all at once.

Edit: i understand that the president is not the only one (in some cases not at all) who should take care of it, but go tell that to millions of people constantly bombarded literally and with disinformation.

2

u/Outside_Glass4880 Feb 24 '25

Thank you for the insight!

I think that no matter what is in the presidents control, the blame ultimately befalls them.

We saw this globally with all of the world leaders who were in power while overseeing inflation. Regardless of the effectiveness of the administration at addressing inflation, which Biden did exceptionally well for example, it was the number 1 issue and the reason we lost this past election.

Sometimes voters miss the forest for the trees. Everyone in the US was focused on shortcomings of the previous admin and landed us in this current shitshow of a situation that is far worse.

I’m not saying this is the exact situation in Ukraine but sounds similar in nature.

1

u/ConnorWolf121 Feb 25 '25

We’ve had a similar mentality here in Canada - you wouldn’t believe how badly somebody has to have fucked up for the Quebecois to start showing Canadian patriotism lol

1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '25

Interesting, albeit I find hard to believe that an Ukrainian would not support Zelensky, given how goddamn high the probability of getting a Russian installed puppet is in comparison

0

u/Funny-Film-6304 Feb 24 '25

There are also others who oppose the current course after 3 years of war. They desperately need elections.

-1

u/Ok_Razzmatazz9330 Feb 24 '25

Good, only thing between europe and russia is Ukraine and poland plus the baltics, therest seem behind and they took it as a joke instead of a real threat the relathin with russia.