Zelensky has led his country in unexpectedly fierce resistance.
Zelensky has led his country in unexpectedly fierce resistance.
As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky puts it, when Russia invaded 100 days ago, no one expected his country to survive. World leaders advised him to flee.
“But they didn’t know us,” he said in a late-night video address in April as the war reached its 50th day. “And they did not know how brave the Ukrainians are, how much we value freedom.” Maybe he’s talking about himself. No one knew how a 44-year-old man, who had catapulted himself from the entertainment world to the presidency, would respond to the invasion of Russia’s vast army.
His response has been overwhelming – and compellingly public. Mr. Zelensky has led his country in unexpectedly fierce resistance. Every night, he rallies to fight Ukrainians with a video address on social media. There have been 100 so far – one for each day of the war – in nightly reminders that he has not fled, that Ukraine has indeed survived.
His actor-trained voice can be a soothing, deep, secretive almost whisper when he looks straight into the camera. Or by force, growing in moral outrage as he condemns the most recent Russian atrocities and insists that those responsible will be punished.
Since the beginning of the war he has dressed in various shades of army green, often appearing in a simple T-shirt. The impression he leaves is clear: he is fresh from the fight and about to get back into it.
A tireless and skilled communicator, Mr. Zelensky has spoken by video link to the United Nations, the British Parliament, the US Congress and nearly two dozen other parliaments around the world, as well as the Cannes Film Festival and America’s Grammy Awards. Rarely has a person addressed so many VIPs without a tie. He has also given interviews to journalists. He held a press conference in the security of the Kyiv Metro.
But his nightly video address has been his favorite channel to inform and inspire his fellow citizens.
He often begins with encouraging greetings to Ukrainians as “free people of a brave country” or “invincible people of our great country”. He always ends with a defiant “Glory to Ukraine”. He tells them about the world leaders he spoke with during the day and his efforts to send more and better weapons to those leaders to impose more punitive sanctions on Russia.
He speaks to the anger and pain of his fellow Ukrainians over the country’s devastation, untold deaths. “What Russia is doing to our people breaks my heart,” he said on March 16 when Russian bombs killed hundreds of asylum-seekers at a theater in Mariupol.
He salutes their courage and says that they never tire of thanking all those who have fought to determine the future of Ukraine. On 14 April he said the country did not collapse within days as Russia expected, as millions of Ukrainians “made the most important decision of their lives – to fight.” He also tried to reach a Russian audience on April 1, when he switched from Ukrainian to Russian and urged the Russians to keep their sons away from the war.
“We don’t need new dead people here,” he said. “Take care of your children so that they do not become villains, do not send them to the army. Do whatever you can to keep them alive. At home.” In his video address marking 100 days on Friday, Mr Zelensky said there are many words and numbers associated with the war, but “there are three words for which we have been fighting for a hundred days after eight years. : Peace, Victory, ‘ Ukraine.’ Pride of Ukraine!” Justifying the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin says he is protecting Ukraine from the “drugs and neo-Nazis” of Mr. Zelensky’s government. He ignored Mr. Zelensky’s call for a meeting. done.
Back in June 2019, shortly after Mr. Zelensky was elected president, Mr. Putin was asked why he did not congratulate the new Ukrainian leader. In a condescending response, Mr. Putin wrote off the actor-turned-president.
“Well, it’s one thing to play someone and another to play someone,” Mr. Putin said. “The important thing is to have the courage and character to take the responsibility. He hasn’t shown his character yet.” For 100 nights, that character has been shown to Ukrainians and the world. And to Mr. Putin.