War in Ukraine: Volodymyr Zelensky, the face of resistance of a whole people (2024)

The Ukrainian president appeared on screen in a khaki shirt, his face defeated. Volodymyr Zelensky's video conference speech on Tuesday 1^er March in Brussels was even more serious than in recent days. That morning, his country's second largest city, Kharkiv, was violently bombed. Residential neighborhoods were targeted. Civilians died. The heart of the city was also hit.

"Can you believe it? Two missiles hit Freedom Square. Dozens of people were killed. This is the price of freedom." The president sweeps the sheet of paper in front of him. "I don't have a speech written in advance. We're not there anymore today. People are dying every day, that's the reality." In the headphones, the translator's voice breaks.

It's been less than a week since Moscow launched a full-scale offensive in Ukraine on Thursday, February 24, and Volodymyr Zelensky, 44, is already not the same man. The week before, we were watching, still a little astonished, the transformation of this former comedian into a warlord facing the most serious crisis in Europe since the end of the Cold War. Today, his bravery is celebrated everywhere, inside and outside the country. Six days were enough to make him a hero. The term is so overused that those who use it are careful to specify that it is not too strong to designate the head of state, who came to power in 2019 without political or military experience.

How else to describe him? Volodymyr Zelensky knows that he is the Kremlin's number one target, determined to decapitate Ukraine to install a puppet government in its pay, according to Washington. Yet he chose to stay in Kiev and declined the American offer to be evacuated: "I need ammunition, not a cab." The man, who came from stand-up before being the star of the series Servant of the People, has a sense of formula and handles communication tools wonderfully. On Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, he multiplies selfies with his team, smiling. The contrast is glaring with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, stiff and icy, who consults his advisers from several meters away at the end of a long table and inspires such terror that even the director of foreign intelligence comes to stammer.

The meaning of the formula

Russia multiplies the fake news letting believe in the escape of the president? Volodymyr Zelensky filmed himself with his bodyguard, at nightfall, in the heart of the capital. "The president is here, our troops are here, the citizens are here. We are all here to protect the independence of our country. Glory to our defenders, glory to Ukraine, glory to the heroes."

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