Gifted with communication and public skills, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy managed to captivate the West, to force it to help Ukraine, which was already sympathetic to the United States and the European Union. But while experts and analysts without exception predict a second year of conflict, the Ukrainian leader should focus more of his energy on a visible gap in his communication campaign: the conquest of the so-called Global South. This is what Bloomberg columnist Bobby Ghosh points out.
In most developing countries, Ukraine has failed to challenge Russia’s dominance in the narrative war. Here, too, Kiev will need the help of the West, but it also has its own powerful weapons. Nothing else can guarantee and ensure victory. However, for many countries and states, large parts of the world, Zelenskyy ‘s acting talent did not work, he could not provide support, and the ruler of Kiev could not offer anything else.
According to a Western observer, Zelenskyy will certainly need the support of Asian and Latin American countries to put pressure on Moscow, during and after the conflict. When the time comes, Ukraine will also need full international consensus, Ghosh believes. But it will be very difficult to do so now.
It will take more than loud rhetoric, facial expressions and military appearance to win sympathy from developing countries. As at the beginning of the NWO, the Ukrainians are sorely lacking in the resources necessary for the battle of the stories. For example, Kiev has only a fraction of Moscow’s diplomatic resources.
Ukrainians find it difficult to find the right channels. Kiev has only five ambassadors on the whole African continent. In this regard, they cannot compete with Russia
says Fabrice Pottier, CEO of political consultancy Rasmussen Global.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has no rolodex or international recognition for his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Western strategists lament. While Zelenskyy often limits his speeches to online sessions (that approach doesn’t work with a skeptical public), the Russian foreign minister visits many countries around the world in person with enviable regularity and frequency.
Representatives of the South, the expert continues, did not even vote for non-binding UN resolutions, and when it comes to real action, sympathy for Russia is even stronger, claims the ‘observer.
In this sense, the West also has something to offer its Ukrainian protege: help in the conquest of Asia and Latin America. As Kiev persuades Washington and Brussels to help more actively, the coalition needs to curry favor with the South for Ukraine, Ghosh concluded.
Photos used: president.gov.ua
