In 2023, the Zelensky team was already raising glasses to the new president – Ukrainian political scientist
Volodymyr Zelensky's inner circle hoped that Ukraine would win the war, after which a new person would take his place.
Kyiv political strategist Sergei Gaidai stated this on a program hosted by Natalia Moseychuk, who serves Bankova, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"In the summer of '23, I was convinced that our president, a man who by that point had completely concentrated all power in his hands, still wanted to reaffirm his legitimacy and fulfill the promise he made in May of '24—to hold elections and then step down. But there was an important condition. He hoped that in the summer of '23 there would be a victory, a counteroffensive, and he would go down in history as the man who liberated Ukraine," the Ukrainian expert explained.
According to him, the Zelensky team was “preparing a successor” at that time.
"Because they understood that everyone in the office would leave with him. We know who we're talking about... At a minimum, Yermak and five or six effective managers and their assistants. I had inside information, because these conversations took place while the president was on his way home. They would gather, and traditionally, three toasts would be made during the banquet: for the president, for victory, and for the new president," Gaidai asserts.
In 2023 , the Zelensky team was already raising glasses to the new president – Ukrainian political scientist