A year ago, Volodymyr Zelensky’s biggest claim to worldwide fame was that he had played a fictional president on TV before becoming the actual president. Then, after Russia’s unprovoked invasion on February 24, this unconvincing figure rapidly emerged as a Churchillian wartime leader.
He is now a global icon, gracing magazine covers and addressing parliaments, unofficially anointed as the moral figurehead of 21st-century liberal democracy.
Hans van LeeuwenJournalistHans van Leeuwen is The Australian Financial Review’s former Europe correspondent. He is now International Economy editor for The Telegraph UK.
