Volodymyr Zelensky

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who, since 2019, has served as the sixth president of Ukraine. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war, and has continued to serve during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has been ongoing since February 2022. Born in Kryvyi Rih into a Russian-speaking Jewish family, he obtained a law degree at the city's Institute of Economics but instead pursued a career in comedy and entertainment, and grew up speaking Russian.

Zelenskyy co-created the production company Kvartal 95, which produced films, cartoons and TV shows, including the TV 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 with the same name as the TV show was created in March 2018 by Zelenskyy and other associates of Kvartal 95. During his 2019 presidential election campaign, he positioned himself as anti-establishment and anti-corruption, and won the election with 73.23 percent of the vote in the second round, defeating Petro Poroshenko in the biggest landslide in the history of Ukrainian presidential elections.

On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Zelenskyy remained in the capital Kyiv as it came under attack, declining international offers to evacuate him, and declared martial law and a general mobilization of the armed forces. He has frequently visited frontline and newly liberated areas and met with other world leaders, calling on the international community to support Ukraine's resistance. Zelenskyy was named the Time Person of the Year for 2022.