Volodymyr Zelenskyy made his first appearance as head of state as an actor on Ukrainian television, in a comedy series popular in the country. But soon acting became a reality. In 2019, Zelenskyy was already elected president. Today, he leads a country as a wartime leader of 44 million people who are is facing a Russian military invasion.
In 2015, Zelenskyy became the star of the television series Servant of the People, where he played the role of the president of Ukraine. In the series, Zelenskyy's character was a high school history teacher in his 30s who won the presidential election after a viral video showed him ranting against government corruption in Ukraine. It was a fairy tale that captured the imagination of Ukrainians who were fed up with politics.
"Servant of the People" became the name of the political party he founded and used to publicize his political approach, which was calling for the purification of political life of corruption and the establishment of peace in the eastern regions of the country.
Now, the buildup of Russian troops on Ukraine's border and its invasion of the country have put this inexperienced president at the center of an international crisis on a par with the Cold War between the West and the Soviet bloc.
President Zelenskyy, 44, had to take a cautious stance, galvanizing support for his country's cause on the one hand and asking the West to avoid panicking and trying to placate its citizens on the other.
The path Zelenskyy took to the presidency was by no means a familiar one. Volodymyr Zelenskyy was born to Jewish parents on 25 January 1978 in Kryvyi Rih, then in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. His father, Oleksandr Zelenskyy, is a professor and the head of the Department of Cybernetics and Computing Hardware at the Kryvyi Rih State University of Economics and Technology. His grandfather, Semyon (Simon) Ivanovych Zelenskyy, served in the Red Army (57th Guards Motor Rifle Division) during World War II.
In his youth, Zelenskyy was a regular participant in a competitive humor program that was broadcast on Russian television. In 2003, he co-founded a successful television production team called Kvartal 95. This team produced programs for the Ukrainian 1+1 TV Channel, whose billionaire owner Igor Kolomoisky later supported Zelenskyy's campaign to win the presidency.
Politics was not Zelenskyy's primary interest until the mid-2000s, before which he focused mostly on his television and film work in films such as Love in the Big City (2009) and Ravsky vs. Napoleon (2012).
The turbulent events of 2014 were the scene of Zelenskyy's sudden entry into politics, following the ouster of Ukraine's pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, after months of "protests."
After that, Russia annexed Crimea and began providing support to the separatists in eastern Ukraine in a war that has escalated dangerously in recent days. One year later, in October of 2015, the first episode of the series "Servant of the People" was shown on the TV Channel 1+1. In the series, Zelenskyy played Vasily Goloborodko, whose rapid rise to the top was similar to that of Zelenskyy in the future.
In 2019, Zelenskyy defeated then-President Petro Poroshenko, who sought to portray his opponent as a political novice — though voters saw this as Zelenskyy's laudable trait.
Zelenskyy was elected by a large majority of 73.2 percent and was sworn in as President of Ukraine on May 20, 2019. Zelenskyy tried to fulfill his promise to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has left at least 14,000 people dead. He tried the path of compromise at first, as negotiations took place with Russia, an exchange of prisoners, and attempts to implement the terms of the Minsk Peace Agreement. But these attempts were not followed up seriously.
To the ire of the Russian president, Zelenskyy sought a more assertive effort to bring Ukraine into the European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
It was not easy for Zelenskyy to portray himself as a statesman, and his critics frequently pointed out his lack of political experience. But he was distinguished by the reassuring tone of his speech before the Russian invasion, despite Western warnings of its imminence.
Zelenskyy also struggled to make good on another of his election promises: to counter the huge political and economic clout of the very wealthy Ukrainians.
Zelenskyy has had his share of scandals. In October 2021, his name appeared in the Pandora Papers - the massive leak of documents exposing the hidden fortunes of many of the world's leaders and rich elites.
The documents revealed that Zelenskyy and those close to him control a network of companies established in tax havens. But Zelenskyy said that the documents were not new, and he denied that he or any of his company members - Kvartal 95- were involved in money laundering.
In the early hours of 26 February, during the most significant assault by Russian troops on the capital of Kyiv, the United States government urged Zelenskyy to evacuate to a safer location, and said it stood ready to assist him in such an effort. Zelenskyy turned down the offer and opted to remain in Kyiv with its defense forces, saying that "the fight is here [in Kyiv]; I need ammunition, not a ride."
Zelenskyy gained worldwide recognition as the wartime leader of Ukraine during the Russian invasion; historian Andrew Roberts compared him to Winston Churchill, and he has been described as a national hero in Ukraine. He contributed to the renewed popularity of the salute Slava Ukraini as a symbol of resistance.
