Ukraine and its leader seemed to transcend their roles as victims of Russia's aggression
. Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to “de-Nazify” Ukraine, his chosen term for ousting the first Jewish President in its history and installing a regime loyal to Russia in his place. The invasion thrust Zelensky into a different role, one that at first seemed ill-suited to his character. His friends and advisers have often told me that Zelensky has thin skin. He suffers from the actor’s malady: an abiding need to be liked and applauded.
Born in 1978, the future President grew up in a working-class Jewish family in the city of Kryvyi Rih , in the shadow of Ukraine’s biggest steel mill. Like many in that part of the country, his parents spoke Russian at home. Like nearly all Jews in Ukraine, the family had suffered tremendously during World WarII. Zelensky’s grandfather, who commanded an artillery platoon in the Red Army, lost his father and three of his brothers in the Holocaust.
The show was a sensation in both Russia and Ukraine, and in 2019 it became Zelensky’s springboard into politics. In a video posted on YouTube that New Year’s Eve, he stood next to a Christmas tree and announced his intention to run for Ukraine’s highest office. Voters flocked to his campaign, which was hardly traditional: Zelensky did not take part in debates or publish an electoral platform.
Putin was furious over the crackdown against his friend Medvedchuk, calling it an “obvious purge of the political field.” He responded by sending thousands of Russian troops to the border for a series of “large-scale exercises” that went on for most of 2021. Shelling and sniper fire increased along the front lines. The U.S. began to warn of a rapid escalation, even an invasion.
But Zelensky and his inner circle did not believe an invasion was at hand. Ukrainian border guards told him the chances of a full-scale attack were not much higher than they had been since the war started in 2014. “We’re talking about a black-swan event,” says Iuliia Mendel, a communications adviser to Zelensky. “Nobody could believe it was going to happen.”In the early morning of Feb.
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