Volodymyr Zelensky’s wild ride from millionaire comedian to wartime leader

As a former millionaire comedian, Volodymyr Zelensky has been thrust from the spotlight into the fog of war in just a matter of years.

He is the most improbable wartime leader in the world, an unlikely hero who rose to fame as the winner of Dancing with the Stars and the secret voice of Paddington Bear.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is now Russia’s “number one” kill target, moving between secret locations in the nation’s capital Kyiv. His wife Olena, 44, and two children, aged 17 and nine, are also in hiding.

This week, as the world watched astounded at the bravery and resistance of Ukrainian citizens, footage also emerged of President Zelensky‘s appearance on Dancing with the Stars, in 2006.

Featuring a younger Zelensky dancing in a white fedora and a hot-pink satin shirt, it quickly went viral.

But these days, he is better known for his unshaven wartime appearances in a khaki T-shirt, and military attire.

so apparently Zelenskyy won the Ukrainian version of Dancing with the Stars in 2006 and the tape is even better than whatever you're imagining pic.twitter.com/L1gnKD2ISr

— Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) February 27, 2022

The world first heard about President Zelenksy as a result of his “perfect phone call” with US President Donald Trump. In that phone call, Trump tried to pressure him into holding an investigation into his Democrat opponent and President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Just months after he was elected, President Zelensky asked Trump for an increase in military aid — specifically, to purchase more Javelin antitank missiles, to fight Russian-backed separatists.

Trump responded by saying, “I would like you to do us a favour though.”

He was demanding the Ukrainians investigate a theory about Ukrainian possession of a Democratic email server, the other about the Biden family’s allegedly corrupt dealings with a Ukrainian prosecutor. Ultimately, a complaint about that call and claims he was trying to blackmail Ukraine led to his trial for impeachment.

Zelensky was a stand up comedian, a performer and a millionaire producer before he became President just two years ago.

Volodymyr Zelensky on dancing with the stars in 2006.

His first language was Russian and he grew up in the Russian-speaking city of Kryvyi Rih, in the eastern part of Ukraine. He trained as a lawyer but then starred in a range of rom-coms and comedy programs.

His rise to the presidency was unorthodox. He was best known for his role in the television show Servant of the People. In the hit TV show, he played a high school teacher elected president after a video of him denouncing corruption goes viral.

https://t.co/PQ4WrzNaAk

— Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) February 27, 2022

Despite his nation‘s dark history of anti-Semitism, he was elected as President in a landslide in 2019.

His grandfather fought in the Soviet army against the Nazis, while other family members died in the Holocaust. But until now, he has been regarded as unlikely to rise to the challenge. Initially, he was criticised as too quick to compromise with Moscow.

In January, as warnings of Russian troops massing on the Ukrainian border grew louder, President Zelensky angered many by announcing he was going skiing.

A video promptly emerged of him flying down the Carpathian Mountains, wearing wraparound sunglasses.

These days, Zelensky is better known for his unshaven wartime appearances in a khaki T-shirt, and military attire.

Just seven days ago, The New York Times ran an op-ed by the chief editor of The Kyiv Independent Olga Rudenko who suggested he was “seriously in over his head.”

“The comic-turned-president surely never imagined the job would be quite so intense. First, he got tangled up in the impeachment of Donald Trump. Then he had to deal with the Covid pandemic. And now he’s facing the prospect of a full-scale invasion by Russia,‘’ she wrote.

He was, she wrote, “dispiritingly mediocre”. That was before Russia invaded Ukraine, and the President emerged as an international hero.