Who Is Volodymyr Zelenskyy: Biography, Personal Life, Political Career

Photo CNN

The Time magazine annually hands out the title Person of the Year to someone who has "affected the news or our lives the most, for better, or worse". This year President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and "the spirit of Ukraine" has been named Time magazine's 2022 Person of the Year. Who is he? How has he become Person of The Year? Read on to know the answer.

Who is Volodymyr Zelenskyy?

Zelensky, 44, is a former comedian, television personality and actor — and now Ukraine’s head of state. He was born in the industrial city of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine and raised in an “ordinary Soviet Jewish family,” he has said.

Although he was a political novice, Zelensky’s anti-corruption platform won him widespread support, and his significant online following translated into a solid electoral base. He won a landslide victory over incumbent Petro Poroshenko in the second round of the 2019 presidential election. President Zelensky’s leadership during the Russian invasion of Ukraine won him global acclaim.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Family

He and his wife, screenwriter Olena Zelenska, have two children.

Zelenskyy met Zelenska in college, where she switched from studying architecture to writing and became a screenwriter for his production company, according to Tatler.

They share two children, 17-year-old Aleksandra and 9-year-old Kiril.

How did Zelensky rise from television comedian to president?

Photo DW

Zelensky studied law at university but after graduating entered the entertainment business, founding a television-production company. He became famous for his skits, including one where he and some accomplices dropped their trousers and pretended to play a piano with something other than their hands. Later, he won the Ukrainian version of “Dancing with the Stars” in 2006 and voiced the role of Paddington in the eponymous movie about a young bear who visits London.

It was his TV show “Servant of the People” that captured the mood of the country when the program first aired in 2015, however. Mr. Zelensky played a humble schoolteacher who candidly ranted on a video about the everyday corruption many Ukrainians need to contend with. The clip went viral, launching a political career that ultimately propelled his character into the presidential palace.

READ MORE: Ukraine President Zelenskyy: Horoscope, Astrological Prediction and Zodiac Sign Personality

How long has Zelensky been president of Ukraine?

Photo REUTERS

Mr. Zelensky was elected president in 2019, defeating the incumbent Petro Poroshenko by casting himself as an antiestablishment outsider bent on rooting out corruption and securing better relations with Moscow. His pitch was largely based on the role he played on his TV show, where he portrayed an ordinary man thrown into the presidency to clean up the country. His political party was even named after the show.

What are Zelensky’s political views, including on Putin and Russia?

Zelensky has overseen the name changes of Soviet-era monuments and street names to honor Ukrainian heroes.

While he has become a hero of sorts to the Ukrainian public in the days since the Russian invasion began, his popularity as president had appeared to be waning. He was criticized for failing to push through anti-corruption reforms and some Ukrainians viewed him as too weak when it came to standing up to Putin.

Before he was elected, he said in an interview with Vice News that he wanted to end the conflict in the eastern Donbas region, “because we don’t want our people to perish anymore.”

The conflict in Donbas, where Russian-backed separatists have been battling with the Ukrainian government, played a key role in the Russian invasion. Days before the war started, Putin formally recognized the independence of two separatist republics in the Donbas, where he has baselessly claimed that a “genocide” against Russian speakers was taking place. (Zelensky also speaks Russian.)

In the days since the invasion, Zelensky has appealed to both the European Union and NATO to grant Ukraine membership. Russia opposes NATO’s expansion eastward and has said Ukrainian membership is a “red line” for Moscow.

“We have proven our strength,” Zelensky said to the European Parliament in an address Monday. “So do prove that you are with us. Prove that you will not let us go. Prove that you indeed are Europeans.”

How is Zelensky winning international support?

Mr. Zelensky is at the apex of a sophisticated public relations effort to build global backing for Ukraine. From hand-shot videos from the streets of Kyiv to his addresses to the United Nations and the U.S. Congress, Mr. Zelensky is careful to tailor his message for his specific audience. He invoked the attacks of 9/11 and Pearl Harbor for American lawmakers and referred to Britain standing alone against Nazi Germany as he spoke by videolink to the British parliament. When speaking to the Irish parliament, he referred to the danger of famine in other parts of the world because of the disruption to Ukraine’s huge agricultural exports. He told the Grammy Awards that Ukraine’s cities were being silenced by the Russian war machine, and during an interview for The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit in London he said global companies had a critical role to play in isolating Russia and reviving Ukraine’s economy.

In Ukraine, his customary late-night addresses over social media have become a rally-point for ordinary Ukrainians. Sat at his desk, Mr. Zelensky provides updates on how the conflict is progressing, applauding the sacrifices of the Ukrainian armed forces and warning of the tests to come.

READ MORE: Who Is President Cyril Ramaphosa: Early Life, Career, Personal Life, Achievements

How has Zelensky’s stance against Russia evolved?

Mr. Zelensky initially sought a rapprochement with Russia when he was elected president in 2019. Ukraine had been at loggerheads with the Kremlin since 2014, when Russian forces annexed the Black Sea port of Crimea and stirred up a rebellion that led to two pro-Russian regions breaking away from Kyiv’s control. Mr. Zelensky pledged to improve relations with Mr. Putin, and had some early successes. He secured a prisoner exchange with Russia and moved toward a deal on how to build on a 2015 cease-fire agreement.

Street protests against his plans forced him to change tack. Western diplomats warned him that Mr. Putin was trying to get him to sign an agreement that would provide Mr. Putin with long-term influence over Ukraine’s future via Russia’s proxies in the breakaway regions, with the goal of barring the country from joining the EU or NATO.

Zelensky instead turned toward persuading NATO to engage in a closer relationship with Ukraine while launching a popular campaign to win back control of the strategic Crimean Peninsula. A person close to him said Russia had begun to see him as being too similar to Mr. Poroshenko, whom he succeeded as president, and as someone intent on pushing Ukraine closer to the West.

Political analysts said the prospect of Ukraine aligning itself more closely with the West had enraged Mr. Putin, who has long been trying to restore Russia’s sphere of influence, which had been curtailed severely since the end of the Cold War more than 30 years earlier.

On the fifth day of the invasion, Zelensky said the Ukrainian people were now fighting to become equal members of the EU—with many paying the ultimate price. “We are giving our lives for the right to be equal,” he said, unshaven and wearing a green army T-shirt. “Prove that you are with us and won’t let us go.”

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