KYIV, July 16 — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has now spent more than five years in office, navigating the most severe military crisis on the European continent since the Second World War. According to the record, he took office in 2019, five years after the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war, and has continued to serve through the full-scale Russian invasion that began in February 2022. The president’s background is unusual for a wartime leader.
Born in Kryvyi Rih into a Russian-speaking Jewish family, Zelenskyy obtained a law degree at the city’s Institute of Economics but chose a career in comedy and entertainment instead. He co-founded the production company Kvartal 95, which produced films, cartoons, and television shows, most notably the series Servant of the People, in which he played a fictional Ukrainian president.
The series aired from 2015 to 2019 and was immensely popular. A political party bearing the same name as the television show was founded in March 2018 by Zelenskyy and other associates of Kvartal 95. During his campaign in the 2019 presidential election, Zelenskyy positioned himself as anti-establishment and anti-corruption.
He had already been a frontrunner in opinion polls months before declaring his candidacy. He won the election with 73.23 percent of the vote in the second round, defeating incumbent President Petro Poroshenko in what the record shows was the biggest landslide in the history of Ukrainian presidential elections.
His party won a landslide victory in the snap parliamentary election held shortly after his inauguration. As president, Zelenskyy has been a proponent of e-government and of unity between the Ukrainian- and Russian-speaking parts of the country’s population. He makes extensive use of social media.
During the first two years of his presidency, he oversaw some limited progress in tackling corruption in Ukraine, the ending of legal immunity for members of parliament, and the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic recession. During his early presidency, Zelenskyy attempted to end the war in Donbas by implementing the Minsk agreements through the Steinmeier formula, and sought dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to the record, during 2021 there was a large Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s borders and increased attacks by Russian proxy forces, sparking an international crisis. Zelenskyy said his military would not respond to provocations.
He attempted to calm the Ukrainian people and asked for military support from NATO. On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. During the early peace negotiations, Zelenskyy demanded a ceasefire and Russian withdrawal.
He stated he was willing to discuss Ukraine becoming a neutral country if given real security guarantees, and was willing to negotiate the status of Crimea and Donbas. After Russia annexed southeastern Ukraine, Zelenskyy applied for Ukraine to join NATO.
He presented Ukraine’s Peace Formula in late 2022 and the Victory Plan for Ukraine in late 2024. The president has frequently visited frontline and newly liberated areas, meeting with other world leaders. He has called on the international community to support Ukraine’s resistance, to provide Ukraine with military aid, and to impose tougher sanctions on Russia to bring an end to its war.
The strategic context remains that Zelenskyy continues to lead a country at war, balancing domestic expectations for territorial integrity with the realities of a grinding conflict.
