"I was as surprised as anyone that the entertainer-turned-president has proven himself to be a national hero under fire"
By Vladislav Davidzon , Ukraine
That Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky would emerge as a wartime hero who chose to stay in Kyiv and rally the troops as the capital was being bombed by the Russian Air Force was nobody’s guess. The Jewish former actor and comedian is an unlikely candidate to be playing the role of Churchill for our times — which just goes to show that sometimes history possesses an ironic sense of humor.
Zelensky was born in Kryvyi Rih, a Russian-speaking region in southeastern Ukraine, to assimilated Jewish parents. He initially earned a law degree from the Kyiv National Economic University, but then switched gears an found his creative niche in acting and comedy.
The production company he created produces films, cartoons, and TV shows — including the widely popular Servant of the People, in which Zelensky had the starring role as an ordinary man who accidentally becomes president of Ukraine. The series, which aired from 2015 to 2019, was a self-fulfilling prophecy. He created a political party with the same name as the show, and won a landslide victory in 2019.
Now the former actor has parlayed his television role in Servant of the People into real power, and has proven himself as a national hero.
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