Is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a Good Person?

In philosophy, it’s called the “problem of other minds.” Lately, in today’s age of sentient-sounding chatbots and rapid AI advances, it’s received an enormous uptick in media coverage. But it’s still unresolved; a solution eludes us.

Basically, the “problem of other minds” wrestles with an inherent reality of our brains: we’re privy to our own thoughts — all the logic, emotions, fears, and aspirations. Via our brains, we experience a rich tapestry of emotional experiences. It’s our passport to all the magical moments that make life special.

But what about other people? We can’t see their thoughts. So how do we know if they’re really, truly the same as ours?

Maybe they’re faking it. It’s possible: ChatGPT, Grok 3, and DeepSeek are all splendid fakers. Turns out, our much-ballyhooed Turing test was more indicative of human gullibility than digital sentience.

We know our thoughts are real and legitimate, but we can only infer other people’s thoughts through their actions — and sometimes we get it spectacularly wrong. Sometimes we marry the wrong person, trust the wrong “friend,” and back the wrong leader.

It’s a tragically imperfect system that's been the root cause of most large-scale wars and small-scale social conflicts.

This brings us to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy.

To some, he’s a modern-day George Washington. To others, he’s just the latest in a long line of Eastern European kleptocrats, awash in fraud, theft, and corruption. Opinions are wide and varied.

But we can all agree that we’re living in an era of “unusual” world leaders. From D.C. to Kiev, these ain’t your daddy’s politicians no mo’. Like Trump, Zelenskyy’s path to politics was a weird one. He was a comedian. He had a hit show on Ukrainian TV, where he played a well-meaning history teacher who’s inexplicably elected president of Ukraine.

Look, I’ll admit it. Ukrainian humor escapes me (NSFW, I think?):

Interestingly, in Zelenskyy’s TV show, the issue that propelled him straight to the Ukrainian presidency was corruption. It’s not just a Russian talking point: Ukrainian corruption is a very real, very serious problem. A decade ago — before Putin was “literally Hitler,” and nations like Germany were eagerly seeking stronger ties with Russia — Ukraine was widely acknowledged as the most corrupt nation in Europe.

It’s not that Zelenskyy himself is corrupt (although anything’s possible). Clearly, the corruption problem preceded him. But that doesn’t change the fact that corruption is an institutional, endemic problem in Ukraine, and he came up through that system.

The God’s honest truth is, nobody has any idea how much foreign aid is being stolen. Ukraine will occasionally admit to million-dollar heists, but most observers suspect the actual number is far larger. President Trump put the figure in the hundreds of billions:

There’s much to admire about Zelenskyy. He’s brave; he’s a patriot. Remember how you felt when then-candidate Trump shrugged off a bullet wound in Butler, arose to his feet, and yelled, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”? Well, Ukrainians probably felt similarly when Zelenskyy cooly told Biden, “I need ammunition, not a ride.”

That was ballsy. Impressive. Sounds like something Bruce Willis would say while fighting bad guys in the Nakatomi Plaza.

It was both Trumpian and Washingtonian because we often compare foreign conflicts to the heroes of our American Revolution. President Reagan did so in the 1980s, when he called the Nicaraguan Contras “the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers.”

But they really weren’t. Nor are the Ukrainians today.

That doesn’t mean Zelenskyy’s struggle isn’t honorable. Or that the horrible, disgusting things being said about him are true. Putin accused him of being a Nazi, which he certainly isn’t: he’s a Ukrainian Jew. (It's kind of annoying that “Ashkenazi” has the word “Nazi” in it, but I’m pretty sure that’s not what Putin meant.)

Does Russia have a historic claim to Ukraine? Sure. So does Sweden. European history is rife with countries, cities, and territories being traded repeatedly amongst competing powers and empires. Ownership is usually determined by whoever won the last war.

And when war comes, it’s certainly awful for the people in those places. Your heart goes out to ‘em. And the ripple effect isn’t always limited to Europe: sometimes we feel it here in America, too.

But most of the time we don’t.

The question of whether or not Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy is a good man is a bit of a misdirect: it’s not really relevant.

It’s Zelenskyy’s job to be “good” for Ukraine. It’s Trump’s job to be “good” for America.

That’s it.

We can’t fault Zelenskyy for pursuing the best possible deal for Ukraine. That’s his job. If you were in his shoes, you’d be begging the great Western powers to give you billions as well. The more money — and the more weaponry — and the more Russian concessions — the better.

But President Trump has a job to do, too. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with him pursuing it.