How Ukraine Lost Its Investment Paradise After two years of “generational shift” in Ukrainian governance, oligarchs continue to shape domestic policy, ruining the country`s perspectives and President Zelensky’s reputation. “Ukraine has to become the investment ‘Mecca’ of Central-Eastern Europe… This is the matter of our survival,” proclaimed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Davos Economic Forum in January 2020. A half-year before, Volodymyr Zelensky, young and energetic, decisively won the presidential elections. A self-made man from showbiz, a “guy like you” in his early forties, he seemed to personify the aspiration of Ukrainians for better governance and real reforms.