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Zelensky: The Selling of a President
How a TV comedian from Europe’s poorest country became a modern day Winston Churchill dominating the world stage.
Volodymyr Zelensky will no doubt go down in history as a tragic figure. Plucked from the relative obscurity of Ukrainian television, he became a global phenomenon, a diminutive David who stood up to the diabolical Goliath of Vladimir Putin, reflecting the righteous struggle of his country Ukraine as it took on the brutish and evil Russian Empire.
Very few people in the West had even heard of Zelensky prior to the launch of Russia’s “Special Military Operation” in 2022. Indeed, it is safe to say that 9 out of 10 Americans probably could not even have found Ukraine on a map prior to the start of the conflict. In fact, the only thing most Americans knew about Ukraine was that it had something to do with the impeachment of Donald Trump.
That all changed on February 24 of last year. Suddenly, western audiences were treated to scenes reminiscent of Schindler’s List (but in colour): families crammed onto train platforms, wailing children, frightened mothers — families struggling desperately to leave the war zone.
War, it seemed, had returned to Europe, and the conflict in Ukraine swept into the western consciousness in a…