Usually, you'd expect a state like Ukraine (ex Sowjet) to be corrupt and run by oligarchs with no support by the populace. In that situation, Russia would waltz in, the old depot would flee the country, Russia would isntall a puppet and the populace would be indefferent to it, since it's just more of the same shit.
But Zelenskyy was serious in cleaning up the Ukraine, he is not fleeing and he is uniting the nation.
This was Putin's big mistake. He believed he could scare away a greedy despot to replace him with another one. Instead, the Ukraine has a true leader and developed a real national identity.
For Putin, this is a nightmare. For the west, we finally have someone worth supporting (often we have the issue that we don't know how is the bad and the good guy, see Syria, Mali).
I have nothing to prove it, this is just speculation, taken from some tweets I saw. It makes sense to me, but I have no social insights.
This whole thing could have looked very different under any of the former leaders of the Ukraine.