When Volodymyr Zelenskyy grew up in southeastern Ukraine, his Jewish family spoke Russian and his father once forbade him going abroad to study in Israel.
Zelenskyy has used his own history to demonstrate that his is a country of possibility, not the hate-filled polity of Putin's imagination.
That this fresh-faced upstart, campaigning primarily on social media, could come out of nowhere to claim the country's top office likely was disturbing to Putin, who has slowly tamed and corralled his own political opposition in Russia. He spent time with Zelenskyy on Wednesday just before the fighting started, one of many political leaders who have met with the Ukrainian president over the past month, including U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
Zelenskyy refused to criticize Trump's call, saying he did not want to get involved in another country's politics. With Russian media presenting such a picture of his country, Zelenskyy recorded a message to Russians to refute the notion that Ukraine is the aggressor and that he is any kind of warmonger: “They told you I ordered an offensive on the Donbas, to shoot, to bomb, that there’s no question about it. But there are questions, and very simple ones. To shoot whom, to bomb what? Donetsk?"
In the runup to the Russian invasion, Zelenskyy was critical of President Joe Biden’s open and detailed warnings about Putin’s intentions, saying they were premature and could cause panic. Then after the war began, he has criticized Washington for not doing more to protect Ukraine, including defending it militarily or accelerating its bid to join NATO.
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