Zelenskyy and his wife Olena paying their respect by laying flowers at the Wall of Remembrance during Independence Day of Ukraine in Kyiv on Aug 24. — AFP
OLENA Semykina, the owner of a village shop in east Ukraine, voted for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy five and a half years ago, hoping the fresh-faced political newcomer would end the fighting unleashed by Russian proxy forces in 2014.
The screech of an artillery shell over her leafy village in the war-battered Donetsk region and the plumes of dark smoke billowing on the horizon suggest that her hopes for his first term have fallen short.
