3 years ago Zelenskyy was a TV comedian. Now he’s standing up to Putin’s army.

Three years in the past, he was taking part in a president in a well-liked tv comedy. As we speak, he’s Ukraine’s president, confronting Russia’s fearsome navy would possibly.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is main his nation throughout an invasion that threatens to blow up into the worst battle in Europe’s post-World Conflict II historical past.

On Friday, as Russian troops reached Kyiv, he posted a defiant handheld video to social media displaying him subsequent to the presidential palace within the coronary heart of the Ukrainian capital, surrounded by members of his Cupboard. 

“We’re all right here,” he mentioned. “We’re defending our independence, our nation.” 

The message capped a head-spinning transformation of a person whose job was making jokes on tv right into a wartime chief. Who is that this man on the helm as Ukraine faces the gravest of challenges? 

Zelenskyy, 44, who was elected president in 2019, was educated as a lawyer, however discovered his true calling as an entertainer.

Married to Olena Zelenska, with whom he has two kids, he was born within the central Ukrainian metropolis of Kryvyi Rih within the then-Soviet Union to Jewish mother and father. 

His household’s story tracks his homeland’s and the continent’s bloody historical past: He has mentioned three of his grandfather’s brothers had been killed by Nazi occupiers, whereas his grandfather survived WWII.

Raised throughout communism, Zelenskyy went into politics months earlier than the 2019 election with no prior expertise or strong insurance policies. As an alternative, he ran on a promise to inject integrity into his nation’s management.

In contrast to lots of his counterparts within the area, his previous didn’t flip him right into a dour politician within the Soviet mould. Quite the opposite, his public persona is encapsulated by one in all his best-known quips: “You do not want expertise to be president. You simply should be an honest human being.”

As a product of the leisure business, he’s identified for his personable type and his means to talk to individuals of all types. 

“He’s fairly empathetic as an individual. He finds good connections with individuals,” mentioned Orysia Lutsevych, a analysis fellow on the London assume tank Chatham Home. “That is why he is profitable in politics.”

A local Russian speaker, Zelenskyy used his charisma and immense recognition to win a landslide victory, supported by voters in Ukraine’s south and east — the place thousands and thousands of Russian-speaking Ukrainians felt disenfranchised by earlier administrations. It’s this alienation that Russia has tried to capitalize on by supporting separatists who’ve been preventing Ukrainian forces for eight years. 

This week’s invasion, which got here after months of Russia massing troops on Ukraine’s borders and calls for from President Vladimir Putin that NATO bar Ukraine from becoming a member of the navy alliance, is just not the primary time Zelenskyy has been thrust into the highlight. 

Simply months into his presidency, a telephone dialog by which then-President Donald Trump pressed him to analyze corruption allegations in opposition to Joe Biden garnered worldwide consideration. The scandal led to the primary impeachment of Trump, who was acquitted in early 2020.

By this time, Zelenskyy had already disrupted the Ukrainian political system, bringing into the federal government individuals who needed to modernize the nation, Lutsevych mentioned. 

He tried to rein in Ukraine’s rampant corruption and disrupt the present pillars of energy, however “did not muster sufficient political energy to crack the bone of Ukrainian corruption throughout the system,” she added. 

On the similar time, he is been praised by many in Ukraine for protecting the nation of 44 million firmly on a pro-Western path. Russia and Ukraine stayed aligned after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, however started drifting aside within the 2000s as Kyiv sought deeper integration with Europe. 

In 2014, pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych was swept from energy after refusing to signal an affiliation settlement with the European Union. 

The mere undeniable fact that Ukraine is a democracy has been threatening to the Kremlin, and Russian officers accuse Zelenskyy of being a Western “marionette.” He’s typically mocked by the Kremlin’s propagandists as being incapable. 

Zelenskyy has additionally been criticized for not delivering on his largest marketing campaign promise — to finish the long-simmering conflict between authorities forces and the Moscow-backed separatists in Ukraine’s east. The battle that has left 14,000 lifeless turned a flashpoint final week after Russia formally acknowledged the breakaway territories, Donetsk Folks’s Republic and Luhansk Folks’s Republic. The transfer paved the best way for the invasion days later. 

Whereas rallying help for Ukraine as tensions rose within the run-up to the invasion, Zelenskyy selected to play down dire warnings popping out of Washington that Moscow was about to assault, saying it was hurting Ukraine’s already fragile economic system and morale.

He spooked the markets and despatched the overseas media right into a frenzy earlier this month when — in his characteristically sarcastic type — he appeared to say in a speech that Russia would assault on Feb. 16, later clarifying he was solely referring to media experiences of an invasion on this date. 

Many questioned his calm tone as being too relaxed, even making him the butt of a joke for American late night time present hosts. 

However because it turned clear final week, Ukraine was working out of diplomatic choices to appease Putin, and whereas Zelenskyy nonetheless preached calm, he took on a extra critical tone. He insisted Ukraine was prepared for any risk whereas calling for peace.

Assessing Zelenskyy’s efficiency within the lead-up to the invasion and as commander in chief, Valentyn Gladkykh, a Kyiv-based political analyst, informed NBC Information that the Ukrainian president had managed to morph right into a wartime chief and, for now, Ukrainian society, together with his peacetime opponents, appear to be supporting him.

“No Ukrainian president has ever handled a full-on invasion on his territory,” Gladkykh mentioned. “Having encountered the unprecedented risk, Zelenskyy has proven his finest aspect.” 

However his finest aspect might not be sufficient — he and Ukraine are trapped in a real David and Goliath contest. Huge nuclear-powered Russia spans 11 time zones and its military counts as one of many largest on the planet, leaving the military of Texas-size Ukraine outnumbered and outgunned. 

The distinction is not solely right down to dimension and navy would possibly. Inside hours of Russia’s first strikes, the distinction between Zelenskyy and his counterpart within the Kremlin couldn’t have been extra stark.

In his tackle to justify an incursion into Ukraine late Wednesday, a sometimes expressionless Putin spoke in his stern ex-KGB officer tone, invoking Russia’s nuclear arsenal and warning anybody who tries to cease him. 

“Nobody ought to have any doubts {that a} direct assault on our nation will result in defeat and dire penalties for any potential aggressor,” he mentioned. 

A number of hours earlier, a visibly exhausted Zelenskyy delivered an impassioned, last-minute plea for peace, interesting to Russian residents instantly — in Russian. 

“The individuals of Ukraine need peace,” he mentioned, warning in regards to the devastation that the conflict would deliver to each individuals.

“If the Russian leaders do not need to sit with us behind the desk for the sake of peace, perhaps they are going to sit behind the desk with you,” Zelenskyy pleaded. “Do Russians need conflict? I want to know the reply. However the reply relies upon solely on you.”

Whilst Putin’s bombs began falling on Ukrainian soil, Zelenskyy urged Russians to talk up in opposition to the conflict. He thanked those that did Friday, saying “preserve preventing for us.”

There may be widespread hypothesis amongst observers that Putin’s endgame in Ukraine is perhaps to topple Zelenskyy and to put in a president extra keen to bend earlier than Moscow. Final month, ​​Britain mentioned the Kremlin was looking for to put in a pro-Russian chief in Ukraine as a part of its plans for an invasion. 

“They need to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying its head of state,” Zelenskyy mentioned Thursday, saying he was now “target No. 1” for the Russian forces, however vowed to stay within the capital. 

Later Friday, Putin urged Ukrainian troopers to overthrow their authorities, whilst he instructed he is perhaps keen to enter talks whereas his forces continued their advance throughout the nation.

However Zelenskyy is left with few choices because the Russian offensive intensifies. He might concede floor to Moscow, a transfer that’s more likely to be unpopular with many Ukrainians, or maintain his place and face the total wrath of the Russian military.

For now, he stays defiant. 

“It should proceed like this,” he mentioned within the video posted Friday. “Glory to our defenders, glory to Ukraine.”