Volodymyr Zelensky, a year later

The year that has passed since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed the world‘s perception of Volodymyr Zelensky: international skepticism about the former comedian’s early years as president has turned into widespread appreciation for his leader in times of war. But in these twelve months not only the idea that the world has of the Ukrainian president has changed. Zelensky himself has changed. And Zelensky in turn helped change Ukraine.

From the first weeks after the start of the war, the international press highlighted the most evident gift of the Ukrainian president: his great communication skills. The past as an actor, the ability to find the right answer and the right joke, had already been decisive weapons in the electoral campaign. They have also proved to be fundamental in keeping a nation united and in keeping the attention of the Western world on the Ukrainian question and the Russian invasion. Over time, a determination and courage have been added to these qualities as a communicator that have been recognized in him by all his interlocutors.

This year of war has also allowed Zelensky to develop a growing political awareness that has distanced him from the relatively conciliatory positions with Vladimir Putin’s Russia that he had during the electoral campaign to become president, and up until a few months before the invasion of last February.

When he was surprisingly elected president in May 2019 but with a strong popular mandate (73 percent of the vote), Zelensky was considered the candidate with the least intransigent positions with Russia, especially compared to his main rival, outgoing president Petro Poroshenko. Poroshenko was elected for the first time in 2014, shortly after Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, and was the president of the first years of the war against the separatists of Donbass: for this reason he initially enjoyed a much more aggressive reputation than Zelensky, who also comes from eastern Ukraine and speaks Russian as a first language.

However, Zelensky has always had openly pro-European positions, already exposed in his first career, that of comedian and actor.

The same year of his election, in December, Zelensky obtained a hoped-for meeting with the Russian president in Paris: his hope was to find a peace agreement to resolve the Donbass question, albeit not admitting territorial renunciations. Zelensky maintained confidence that dialogue with Russia was possible up until a few months before the invasion.

However, the invasion radically changed everything: Zelensky immediately took on the role of “war president” and closed any possible path of dialogue with Putin, especially after the discovery of the atrocities committed by Russian soldiers in Bucha. On April 4, when he visited the newly liberated city, he said, “It’s very difficult to talk when you see what they’ve done here.”

But the first turning point in Zelensky’s war presidency came in the days immediately following the invasion.

His decision not to abandon Kiev and to reject a US offer (probable, though never officially confirmed) to safely exit the country then immediately made him a credible war leader, especially in the eyes of the Ukrainians. The famous phrase «The battle is here. I need ammunition, not a ride» was perhaps never really pronounced, but it nonetheless helped to strengthen his leadership: those were times when Kiev seemed like it could fall in a matter of days, when the resistance was organized with Molotov cocktails, when the Ukrainian president was the first target in the event of a Russian occupation of the capital. Staying, at the risk of one’s life, was not such an obvious choice.

Since then Zelensky has shown himself in the least safe places and close to the population, he has supported and fueled the feeling of resistance in the country, he has spent himself in continuous and intense international messages to support the Ukrainian cause. He was able to engage the West by pointing out how Ukraine’s resistance is a war between democracy and autocracy, and how Ukraine, by rejecting Russia, is in fact defending Europe as well.

Over the months Zelensky continued to stimulate international public opinion, constantly asking for more efforts, even at the cost of complicating personal relations with the foreign leaders who were backing him. During these months there have been moments of tension not only with Mario Draghi, but also with US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The Ukrainian military successes of the second phase of the war were used by the president to convince the world that a victory for Ukraine was at least possible, and that therefore the economic effort to support Ukraine militarily was not only ethically correct, but also useful. Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister, he said: «He personally sincerely believes in victory and for him it’s take it or leave it, there’s nothing in between. If you think there are middle ways, you won’t be able to win.”

This attitude has been interpreted by a part of Western public opinion, including in Italy, as a sign of intransigence, according to which Zelensky is allegedly pushing the Ukrainian people and the West towards a bloody war and towards the risk of an “escalation” with a nuclear power like Russia. In reality, many analysts note how Zelensky is interpreting the prevailing sentiment of many Ukrainian men and women: the recent history of the country, starting from the 2014 revolution, shows that Ukrainians would hardly have accepted anything different.

– Listen to Globe: A year of war told by Ukraine, with Daniele Raineri

Then there is another aspect of Zelensky’s presidency which is underlined above all in Ukraine. In his past as an actor he performed mostly in Russian, and many of his comedies are very popular in Russia. But as a politician he has managed to carry the message that it is possible to strongly support Ukraine and its independence even if you are a Russian speaker. As he points out among others Politico, his political rise and presidency helped to overcome many ethnic and linguistic divisions within the country, contributing to the creation of a stronger Ukrainian identity.