Once known for his political comedy sketches and skits where he pretended to play the piano with his penis, Volodymyr Zelenskyy was elected as the president of Ukraine in 2019 in a landslide victory.
Although he promised that his presidency would be different from other Ukrainian leaders who âpromise a lotâ yet âdo nothing,â President Zelenskyy would soon find himself unpopular with the public. Within two years, he had already navigated scandals like his offshore companies appearing in the Pandora Papers and struggled to fulfill his campaign pledge to end the war against Russia in the Donbas region of Ukraine.
But the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, found him extremely well-positioned to offer his skills in performance and storytelling to motivate Ukrainians, rally Europe, and undermine Putinâs propaganda. How will his reaction to Russiaâs advances affect his legacy?
We chose 8 clips that we feel explain President Zelenskyyâs rise from a comedian to the leader of Ukraine and had journalists and experts respond.