Torn between Turkey and the EU, Zelenskyy is learning how hard it is to please everyone

Cyprus' President Nicos Anastasiades, left, and the Cyprus' parliament president Annita Demetriou comment as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses the Cyprus' parliamentarians via video link, in Nicosia, Cyprus, on April 7. APShow less

Speaking to US Congress, he recalled Pearl Harbour and the attacks of 9/11 and said Ukrainians were now facing such assaults every day. When speaking to Germany’s Bundestag he talked of the Berlin Wall and the Cold War. To Finnish lawmakers he pointed to the Soviet invasion of 1939. To Japan he spoke about the nuclear threat, invoking the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that displaced thousands.

Throughout his global parliamentary tour, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has established a pattern of honing in on his audience’s national sensitivities to highlight a historical threat and establish a link to his country’s plight. Almost without fail, his words have earned a standing ovation as even the most jaded politicians are moved.

That narrative shifted last Thursday when he paid a virtual visit to Nicosia, capital of EU-member Republic of Cyprus. Early in his speech, he thanked the assembled lawmakers, including President Nicos Anastasiades, for joining the EU’s sanctions against Russia and urged them to go further and block all Russian yachts from Cypriot ports.

A boy rides a bicycle past a house that was damaged by shelling in Andriivka village, not far from Kyiv. EPA

A destroyed residential building in Mariupol, south-eastern Ukraine. Reuters

Firefighters at work on the outskirts of Kharkiv, north-east Ukraine. EPA

A torn Ukrainian flag in front of a ruined Mariupol apartment building. Reuters

Residents who cleared debris after Russian shelling eat lunch outside a damaged building in Makariv, near Kyiv. EPA

Children play with a therapeutic dog at a shelter organised by volunteers in Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine. Reuters

A girl stands by the door of a bunker in Severodonetsk, in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, as Russian troops intensify a campaign to take the strategic port city of Mariupol. AFP

A firefighter at work following a missile attack near Kharkiv International Airport. Reuters

A Ukrainian fighter walks in front of a destroyed house in Bohdanivka village, north-east of Kyiv. AFP

Two women hug outside a heavily damaged apartment block following an artillery attack in Kharkiv. Reuters

Ukrainian soldiers guard the village of Barvinkove, as Russia's invasion on Ukraine continues. Reuters

Leonid Serdiuchenko, a Ukrainian commander, stands next to destroyed vehicles outside Barvinkove. Reuters

A woman carries the portrait of Dmytro Stefienko, 32, a civilian killed during the war, during his funeral in Bucha, Ukraine. AP

A Russian soldier collects weapons from inside the Mariupol drama theatre in Ukraine. AFP

Relatives and friends attend the funeral of Andriy Matviychuk, 37, who served as a territorial defence soldier, who was captured and killed by the Russian army in Bucha, Ukraine. AP

Anatoliy Morykin, 45, left, mourns the death of his mother, Valentyna Morykina, 82, who died in a retirement home in Bucha during the Russian invasion. AP

Nadiya, 65, shows a hole in a wall of a building after shelling in Zalissya, Ukraine. EPA

A booby trap found by locals near their home in Zalissya. EPA

Debris of a school bus near a damaged school that was a base for Russian troops in Bohdanivka, Ukraine. EPA

A man examines the debris of a destroyed Russian tank in Bohdanivka. EPA

President Joe Biden speaks to the media before boarding Air Force One at Des Moines International Airport, en route to Washington. AP

Valentina Saroyan sits in the basement of a school in Yahidne, near Chernihiv, Ukraine. AP

Vasyl Cherepenko stands next to a mass grave at a cemetery in Yahidne, near Dnipro, Ukraine. AP

Oksana, second from left, and Yevhen, right, talk with police officers next to their apartment building damaged by shelling in Irpin, Ukraine. AP

Women bid farewell to relatives as they leave the Slovyansk central station in the Donbas region. AFP

The partially destroyed Mariupol drama theatre in Ukraine, hit on March 16 by an air strike. AFP

A man embraces his wife as she prepares to board a train at Slovyansk central station in the Donbas region. AFP

A woman walks through a damaged apartment building after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP

A missile pierces the road in front of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration building amid Russia's attack on Ukraine. Reuters

A boy walks by unexploded Russian shells in the village of Andriyivka close to Kyiv, Ukraine. AP

Ukrainian tanks move down a street in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP

A man walks past a storage place for burned armed vehicles and cars, on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP

Local residents stand on top of a Russian tank on the outskirts of Kyiv. AP

Ukrainian families, who have fled Kherson amid the Russian invasion, watch a dolphin show at a hotel in Odesa, Ukraine. Reuters

Residents stand outside their apartments as shops burn after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine. AP

Irina Szymanska holds her baby in a temporary shelter at the central train station for displaced people heading to Poland in Lviv, Ukraine. Getty Images

A man walks in his yard, damaged by shelling, in the village of Andriivka, Ukraine. EPA

Sixty-two-year-old Luba hugs a Ukrainian servicewoman in Andriivka. EPA

A woman washes clothes in the yard of a ruined house in Andriivka. EPA

Russian soldiers patrol a street in Volnovakha, in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. The picture was taken during a trip organised by the Russian military. AFP

Russian mine clearers search for explosive objects in a building the Russian authorities say was damaged by Ukrainian shelling. AFP

A woman reads a book as residents find shelter from shelling in a metro station in Kharkiv. Reuters

Firefighters try to contain a fire at a plant in Kharkiv following Russian shelling. Reuters

Farm owner Zlobina Lubov tends to her animals in the village of Malaya Rohan, Ukraine. Reuters

A bathtub is seen inside a building that was heavily damaged by shelling in Kharkiv. Reuters

A man looks out of his window, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Borodianka. Reuters

Soldiers 'came to my house and said go to the basement' Zinaida Makishaiva, 82, said, before they started to shoot around her. 'God saved my life,' she said. Reuters

A mother waits for police officers to exhume the body of her son from a well at a fuel station in Buzova, Kyiv region. According to the head of the village, he was killed by Russian soldiers. Reuters

Ukraine’s government, he continued, thought every day about one thing: “How to help everyone we can to survive Russia’s brutal invasion,” said Mr Zelenskyy, showing a video highlighting the destruction and brutality. “God forbid any other nation should have to go through this.”

Yet few countries could understand Ukraine’s plight as well as Cyprus. While the Ukrainian leader had been nearly pitch-perfect elsewhere, in Cyprus he came off as tone-deaf because his audience knew firsthand a similar experience.

“We are disturbed by the fact that there was no reference,” Mr Anastasiades said just after Mr Zelenskyy’s speech. “We expected today to hear that what the Ukrainian people are suffering now, we ourselves also suffered in 1974.”

That July, Athens backed a right-wing paramilitary coup in Nicosia that deposed the president and sought enosis, or the union of Cyprus with Greece. Days later the Turkish military intervened, landing troops at Kyrenia and advancing south toward the capital.

Ukraine’s leader may have dug himself a deeper hole

Hundreds, possibly thousands, of Greek Cypriots were taken to prison camps in Turkey, while hundreds of Turkish Cypriots were massacred in spasms of violence that summer. By late August, a quarter of the island’s population – as many as 200,000 Greek Cypriots and 60,000 Turkish Cypriots – had been forced out of their homes.

They have yet to return, and Turkey has used its 40,000-troop presence to maintain control of nearly 40 per cent of the island. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), recognised only by Turkey, is viewed by the United Nations as an occupation.

About a month before the current conflict began, I suggested Russia might view divided Cyprus as a model for a post-conflict Ukraine. Already a quarter of his country’s population has been displaced, yet Mr Zelenskyy's steering clear of mentioning of Turkey’s Cyprus invasion in his speech was surely no accident. Ankara has strongly supported Kyiv military – Turkey’s defence exports to Ukraine leapt 30-fold in the first quarter and its Bayraktar TB2 drones have drawn great praise for their effectiveness against Russian forces.

Mr Zelenskyy was presumably loath to offend a crucial military backer, not to mention the host of Russia-Ukraine peace talks. He thus failed to touch on the defining event of Cypriot politics for the past half-century, the elephant in the room that to this day largely dictates Cypriot policy.

After his speech, House Speaker Annita Demetriou tried to get Mr Zelenskyy to acknowledge Turkey’s invasion and the line suddenly went dead, with Ukraine officials later blaming a technical difficulty.

Ukraine’s leader may have dug himself a deeper hole in urging lawmakers to revoke the Cypriot passports, granted under a defunct citizenship-for-investment programme, of Russian nationals seen to be using Cyprus to evade sanctions.

“Whom Cyprus naturalises, under what criteria and which passports it revokes is its own matter,” former Justice Minister Emily Yiolitis tweeted in response.

Cypriot politicians were likely already feeling low after US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland on Wednesday told a Greek newspaper that the planned eastern Mediterranean pipeline to deliver Israeli gas to Europe via Cyprus would take too long and cost too much. This may well be the nail in the coffin of the pipeline plan, largely dashing Cypriot hopes of becoming a regional energy hub.

Nicosia’s regional star may be fading as Ankara’s rises. Ms Nuland also urged Cyprus to include Turkey in eastern Mediterranean energy development, though Ankara has yet to acknowledge the Republic of Cyprus’s claims of its EEZ or Exclusive Economic Zone.

To top it off, Cyprus’ main opposition AKEL party boycotted Mr Zelenskyy’s speech after he had given a member of Ukraine’s far-right Azov battalion, which has been linked to neo-Nazi groups, time to speak to Greece’s Parliament earlier on Thursday. The Azov fighter from Mariupol said he was of Greek heritage, so the aim seemed to be an appeal to ethnic solidarity.

But the move backfired as it brought back memories of Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn, also linked to neo-Nazi groups. “President Zelenskyy disrespected Greece's Parliament by ushering into it a Nazi,” former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis tweeted. “Likewise with the Cypriot Parliament – where he refused to engage with its Speaker's comment that Cyprus too is a victim of an illegal invasion.”

During his Cyprus speech, Mr Zelenskyy spoke optimistically of the EU’s “imminent embargo” on Russian energy supplies. If he hopes to make that vision a reality and turn off the European spigot to Russia, Mr Zelenskyy would be wise to take a more diplomatic line and ensure unity, rather than risk dissent among his EU allies.