By Emmanuel Nduka
Despite giving no clear details on how he intended to fix the corruption-riddled and war-torn Ukraine during his campaigns, Volodymyr Zelensky was considered a political novice when he won the country’s Presidential election in 2019.
Thus, his capacity is brought to full test with the Russian invasion.
Away from the war which has taken over the media space in recent days, Heritage Times takes a look at five interesting facts about President Zelensky.
1. Born January 25, 1978 in Kryvyy Rih, Ukraine, Zelesky was an actor and comedian before he was elected President of Ukraine in 2019. As a comedian, he announced his candidacy during a televised New Year’s Eve comedy performance.
2. He took over power from Ukrainian oligarchs. Interestingly, in 2008, the combined wealth of Ukraine’s 50 richest oligarchs was equal to 85% of Ukraine’s GDP.
3. Despite being considered a political novice, he won a landslide victory over incumbent Petro Poroshenkoin the second round of the 2019 presidential election with an impressive 73% of the votes.
4, His communication style heavily utilises social media, particularly Instagram. He prefers this over the traditional live telecast.
5. Within days of his assumption of office, he faced his first foreign policy challenge, when Russian President, Vladimir Putin announced his decision to offer Russian passports to the Ukrainian citizens in separatist-controlled areas of war-torn eastern Ukraine. Zelensky boldly ridiculed the offer, responding with a Facebook post that extended Ukrainian citizenship to Russians and others “who suffer from authoritarian or corrupt regimes.”
He is married to Olena Kiyashko with two kids.
