The Untold Truth Of Volodymyr Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky found himself dealing with a devastating crisis when Russian leader Vladimir Putin announced on February 24, 2022 that he was planning a "special military operation" in Ukraine that was "targeted toward multiple cities." According to Vox, explosions were heard in the capital city, Kyiv, and another city in the eastern part of the country, Kharkiv a short while after Putin made his announcement. A day later, Zelensky said that he knew Russia was focusing on eliminating him from the equation. He said in a statement, "According to the available intelligence, the enemy marked me as a target No. 1 and my family as the target No. 2" (via The New York Times).

Despite the challenges, the president stayed defiant and received praise across the world for his resilience during the invasion: per a Guardian report, Zelensky said that he wasn't leaving his country despite offers from the U.S. to evacuate him from Ukraine as things worsened. He added that what he really needed was access to ammunition and "not a ride." 

Interestingly, Volodymyr Zelensky has an unconventional background — he wasn't familiar with the world of politics before he was elected the president of Ukraine in 2019. That said, he seems to have embraced his new role without hesitation. From being criticized as a politician to being celebrated for motivating Ukrainians during unprecedented times, he has come a long way.

Volodymyr Zelensky, as detailed in an Atlantic profile, grew up in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, when the Soviet Union was starting to crumble. It was an unstable time that was marked by heavy violence on the streets as gangs sprang up in the city. However, Zelensky was lucky: his dad was a professor who taught computer science while his mom was an engineer. The family was relatively privileged and could afford a home in a decent area. 

As a teenager, Volodymyr Zelensky was interested in playing the guitar and was a fan of English rock: at one point, he played music in an underpass and came back home with a guitar that had been broken into pieces. He wasn't discouraged, though. Zelensky turned to his friends and remarked, "I guess Kryvyi Rih isn't ready for us yet." Post the Soviet era, Zelensky got the opportunity to watch comedians perform as they openly cracked jokes on politics, something that had a huge impact on him and inspired him to explore comedy himself. 

Volodymyr Zelensky, according to The Atlantic, had to be patient while trying to make a name for himself in the entertainment space. It would be years before he would achieve success in the competitive industry and become a household name. He worked as an actor and his films were often made in Russian, a move that allowed him to reach more people. According to Forbes Ukraine, by the year 2012, Zelensky's company was doing well for itself and its income was reportedly $15 million.

Per IMDb, Zelensky has worn a number of hats in the past and has worked as an actor, producer, writer, and director. Some of his films from the comedy genre include a 2018 film titled "Me, You, He, She," the 2014 movie "Love In Vegas," and a TV film that was released back in 2005 called "The Three Musketeers." 

Olena Zelenska, the first lady of Ukraine, said in an interview with the Diplomatic Courier that she wants to use her position to talk about social causes close to her heart. She said that she aimed to learn as much as she could by interacting with first ladies from other countries such as Canada, France, Israel, and Japan. "We should care about the issues that concern the whole world — health, education, gender equality," she said.

She added that as a parent, she's quite invested in "child nutrition and its connection to both health and education" which prompted her to work with Ukraine's ministries to focus on a "new school nutrition program" that can be useful for students across the country. Zelenska said that the program "can improve their health so that they can improve their learning."

According to a report by 1+1, The State Food and Consumer Service conducted inspections in Ukrainian schools and discovered that there was a rise in the amount of "unsafe food" items present in schools across the country. Zelenska's nutrition program aimed to introduce reforms in Ukrainian schools to tackle the issue on a larger scale. She was quoted as saying, "Five days a week, children spend almost all day away from home and cannot control what they eat and what they buy in the school cafeteria."

According to ABC News, the popularity of  "Servant of the People" inspired the team behind Kvartal 95 to form a political party called ... the Servant of the People. Volodymyr Zelensky rose to the challenge in 2018 and declared that he would be running for president. His campaign was unlike any other: as a comic, Zelensky was often spotted at tours around Ukraine where he made it a point to crack jokes on his opponents. 

He declared that he would fight corruption in the country if he was chosen as the next president. Additionally, he embraced social media to talk about his campaign. It worked: Zelensky won over 73% of the votes and was sworn in as the president in May 2019. As highlighted by The New Yorker, Zelensky made several promises during the campaign and said that he would work hard to resolve differences with the Russian government and "bring peace to the Donbass," a disputed region in eastern Ukraine. He didn't really specify how he would achieve his goals or overcome the difficulties that his predecessors had faced but still impressed Ukrainian voters.

Here's an example worth noting: In a debate, the presidential candidate told his opponent, former President Petro Poroshenko, "I am the result of your mistakes," an undoubtedly powerful line that didn't go unnoticed.

President Volodymyr Zelensky is a lot more interested in communicating with his fellow Ukrainians on social media than he is in engaging with the press. According to the Atlantic Council, he mostly avoided traditional media outlets in his first year as president — this was also a trend that was observed during the elections when Zelensky often preferred to communicate on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter instead of talking to journalists.

Local media outlets weren't pleased and alleged that the president was running away from "awkward questions." The one exception was a "press marathon" of sorts that was held in October 2019: Zelensky started speaking to members of the press from 10 a.m. and continued engaging with around 300 reporters "until beyond midnight," dealing with over 500 questions.

Even during the 2022 Russian-Ukrainian crisis, Volodymyr Zelensky regularly posted on his social media accounts on platforms such as Twitter and Instagram to ensure that he was interacting directly with the public and keeping them updated.

According to a piece by Radio Svoboda, Ukrainian Oligarch Igor Kolomoisky was closely linked to Volodymyr Zelensky before he was elected: the two worked with each other in a professional capacity when Zelensky was still working in the entertainment industry. According to Kolomoisky, the two got to know each other better over the years and even exchanged greetings on special occasions like birthdays.

Meanwhile, as reported by The New York Times, Kolomoisky got into serious trouble in 2021: the U.S. government announced sanctions on the businessman (he had previously been accused of embezzlement and fraud) and he and his family were banned from visiting the U.S. on account of his "involvement in significant acts of corruption." At that point, Zelensky said that he was not "beholden" to Igor Kolomoisky.

Furthermore, according to The BBC, the Ukrainian president took a strong stand against rich businessmen in the country in March 2021 and said, "We are building a country without oligarchs. We are killing the idea of an oligarch system in our country." This made sense considering the fact that Ukraine had been struggling to get rid of the oligarchs' strong influence: It didn't help that many of them had political parties of their own in the past and "supportive television stations." As a part of his promise to fight corruption in the country, it was perhaps essential for Zelensky to distance himself from the oligarchs.

According to ABC News, members of the public weren't pleased with Zelensky and his approval rating had dropped to 25% by October 2021. The main reason was the fact that the president had not managed to find a solution for the conflict in Donbas, coupled with economic issues such as a rise in the cost of gas, electricity, and water. Olga Oleinikova, Director of the Ukraine Democracy Initiative at the University of Technology Sydney, said in a statement, "People are really not happy with him at the moment." 

Additionally, corruption challenges still plagued the government, something that didn't help Zelensky's reputation. There was another problem: as pointed out by The Wilson Center, Ukraine had seen a common trend of people quickly losing faith in a new president because voters often had "unnaturally high expectations of their candidate" and found it difficult to accept the "lack of tangible achievements" in the period following the election. Additionally, former candidates had also often disappointed their voters by not addressing their election pledges after being sworn in.