Volodymyr Zelensky
Volodymyr Zelensky has been President of Ukraine since May 2019, and has led the country through the largest war in Europe since 1945. Born in Kryvyi Rih in 1978 to Jewish parents — his father a professor of computing, his grandfather a Red Army infantryman whose three brothers were killed in the Holocaust — he took a law degree and never practised. He was a professional entertainer for two decades, founding the comedy troupe Kvartal 95, winning a Russian television competition, and building a production company that made films and shows broadcast across the former Soviet Union. He won the Ukrainian version of Dancing with the Stars and voiced Paddington in Ukrainian. From 2015 he starred in Servant of the People as a schoolteacher whose rant about corruption goes viral and who is elected president. In 2018 his colleagues registered a political party with the show's name, and he announced his candidacy on New Year's Eve. He won the 2019 runoff with about seventy-three per cent against the incumbent Petro Poroshenko, campaigning almost entirely online. His early presidency struggled: he promised to end the Donbas war and to break the oligarchs' power, and made limited progress on either. He was at the centre of the first Trump impeachment over a request to investigate the Bidens. When Russia invaded on 24 February 2022 he refused American evacuation, reportedly saying he needed ammunition and not a ride, and posted a video from central Kyiv that night. His nightly addresses and remote speeches to foreign parliaments were central to sustaining Western support. He cancelled the 2024 election under martial law, and clashed publicly with Donald Trump in the Oval Office in February 2025.
- Lived: 1978 CE – ?
- Nationality: Ukrainian
- Roles: President of Ukraine (2019-present)
