Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. [Courtesy, Al-Jazeera]
At just 44 years old, Ukraine’s sixth President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a man who finds himself at the front and centre in a life and death battle for his country. A comedian turned politician galvanising citizens to stand up to a nuclear power, quite literally.
He turned down an offer from the White House to evacuate, saying: “The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride.”
With his country under attack by Russia, Zelenskyy has refused to back down. The world is now learning more about the journey of the father of two, to the international stage. Even without the current conflict, Zelenskyy’s political career has not been a traditional one.
Family
Born on January 25, 1978 to Jewish parents, Zelenskyy grew up as a native Russian speaker in Kryvyi Rih, a major city in central Ukraine. His father, Oleksandr Zelenskyy, is a professor and head of the Department of Cybernetics and Computing Hardware at the Kryvyi Rih State University of Economics and Technology.
His mother, Ivanovych Zelenskyy, served in the Red Army during World War II.
Zelenskyy has been married to his wife Olena Zelenska aged 44 since 2003, with whom they have two children.
The President and First Lady were schoolmates at Kryvyi Rih National University, but they were not acquainted. Olena also worked as a writer for the Kvartal 95 comedy group
Early life and education
Prior to joining elementary school, Zelenskyy lived for four years in the Mongolian city of Edenet, where his father worked. At the age of 16, he passed the test of English as a foreign language and received an education grant to study in Israel, but his father did not allow him to go. He later earned a law degree from the Kryvyi Rih Institute of Economics.
Entry into comedy
While he studied and graduated with a degree in law, Zelenskyy decided to pursue a career in comedy instead, joining Ukraine’s KVN TV comedy league at just the age of 17.
Success seemed to have followed him after forming his own comedy troupe called Kvartal 95. He toured a number of ex-Soviet states – including Moscow – before the team began producing programs for Ukrainian TV.
He made headlines when he began his career in comedy. Zelenskyy created, produced and starred in the 2015 Ukrainian satirical series ‘Servant of the People’, playing the role of Vasyl Petrovych Holoborodko, an enthusiastic, and outspoken school teacher, turned President.
The series aired from 2015 to 2019 and was immensely popular. So much was the group’s impact and life would go on to imitate art, and a political party bearing the same name as the television show was created in March 2018 by employees of Kvartal 95.
Debut into politics
Zelenskyy announced his candidacy for the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election on the evening of December 31, 2018, alongside the New Year’s Eve address of President Petro Poroshenko. The almost entirely virtual campaign to unseat incumbent President Petro lasted three to four months.
“I would really like to change the mood and timbre of the political establishment, as much as possible,” he said during the campaign.
Presidency
The Ukrainian people responded well, and Zelenskyy won both the first round of elections on March 31, 2019 and the run-off election on April 21, 2019 with over 73 per cent of the votes.
One of Zelenskyy’s presidential campaign promises was that he would serve only one term of five years in office.
He was inaugurated on May 20, 2019, in a ceremony attended by various foreign leaders. He is the first Jewish President of Ukraine.
As President, Zelensyy has been a proponent of e-government and unity between the Ukrainian-speaking and Russian-speaking parts of the country’s population.
His communication style heavily utilises social media, particularly Instagram, where he has 14.1 million followers.
From actor, to comedian, and now President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is enjoying more and more support by the day, the longer the conflict goes, from his fighting force, to his electorate.