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    • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: from TV actor to president

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    Although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is allegedly on a Russian “kill list” according to U.S. intelligence, the once-political novice has vowed to stay in Kyiv as the Russian attack continues.

    "(The) enemy has marked me down as the number one target," Zelensky said in a video message. "My family is the number two target. They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state."

    "I will stay in the capital. My family is also in Ukraine."

    With all eyes on Ukraine right now, some people worldwide may have received their first introduction to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky via his impassioned speech Wednesday night when he appealed directly to the Russian people prior to Russia’s attack on the country.

    But Zelensky has been a well-known figure in Ukraine long before he ran for president and won in a landslide in 2019.

    In fact, he was president before — on television.

    Zelensky was an actor and comedian before he stepped into politics at the age of 41. The role he was best known for was that of a schoolteacher who was so passionate that he ended up becoming president in the comedy show “Servant of the People.”

    He took that zeal and turned it into a real political campaign, registering the name Servant of the People as a political party in 2018. And in 2019, Zelensky swept to victory with more than 73 per cent of the vote compared to just 24.5 per cent for Petri O. Poroshenko, who was the Ukrainian president at the time.

    Now, the one-time television actor is facing the task of helming his country through an invasion.

    Zelensky is the country’s first Jewish leader and his anti-corruption platform and inexperience in the political field was seen as a welcome departure from established candidates.

    He was born in Kryvyy Rih in southern Ukraine, where he grew up speaking Russian before attaining fluency in Ukrainian and English.

    In his speech Wednesday night, speaking in his native Russian, Zelensky referred to the time he’d spent as a younger man in the eastern regions of Ukraine which have been under control of pro-Russian separatists, saying Russian claims he would attack these regions were false.

    “The Donbas Arena, where I rooted for our boys together with Ukrainian lads at the European Championships? Shcherbakov Park, where I drank with friends when our boys lost? Luhansk, where the mother of my best friend is buried? Where his father also rests?” he said.

    The last time Zelensky was in the global eye was when former U.S. President Donald Trump was facing impeachment for the first time in 2019. In a phone conversation between Trump and Zelensky, Trump asked Ukraine to investigate then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, while also allegedly threatening to withhold military aid to Ukraine. 

    With files from Reuters

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