When Volodymyr Zelensky was growing up in southeastern Ukraine, his Jewish family spoke Russian and his father once forbade the younger Zelensky from going abroad to study in Israel.
Instead, Zelensky studied law at home, and upon graduation, he found a new home in movie acting and comedy — rocketing in the 2010s to become one of Ukraine’s top entertainers with the TV series “Servant of the People.” In it, he portrayed a lovable high school teacher fed up with corrupt politicians who accidentally becomes president.
At times in the runup to the Russian invasion, the comedian-turned-statesman had seemed inconsistent, but his bravery and refusal to leave as rockets have rained down on the capital have also made him an unlikely hero to many around the world.
With courage, good humor and grace under fire that has rallied his people and impressed his Western counterparts, the compact, dark-haired, 44-year-old former actor has stayed even though he says he has a target on his back from the Russian invaders.
After an offer from the United States to transport him to safety, Zelenskyy shot back on Saturday: “I need ammunition, not a ride,” he said in Ukrainian, according to a senior American intelligence official with direct knowledge of the conversation.
Russian forces on Saturday were encircling Kyiv on the third day of the war. The chief objective, say military observers, is to reach the capital to depose Zelensky and his government and install someone more compliant with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The boldness of Zelensky’s stand for Ukraine’s sovereignty might not have been expected from a man whose biggest political liability for many years was the feeling that he was too apt to seek compromise with Moscow. He ran for office in part on a platform that he could negotiate peace with Russia, which had seized Crimea from Ukraine and propped up two pro-Russian separatist regions in 2014, leading to a frozen conflict that had killed an estimated 15,000.
Although Zelensky managed a prisoner exchange, the efforts for reconciliation faltered as Putin’s insistence that Ukraine back away from the West became ever more intense, painting the Kyiv government as a nest of extremism run by Washington.
Zelensky has used his own history to demonstrate that his is a country of possibility, not the hate-filled polity of Putin’s imagination.
Despite Ukraine’s dark history of antisemitism, reaching back centuries to Cossack pogroms and the collaboration of some anti-Soviet nationalists with Nazi genocide during World War II, Ukraine after Zelensky’s election in 2019 became the only country outside of Israel with both a president and prime minister who were Jewish. (Zelensky’s grandfather fought in the Soviet Army against the Nazis, while other family died in the Holocaust.)
Like his TV character, Zelensky came to office in a landslide democratic election, defeating a billionaire businessman. He promised to break the power of corrupt oligarchs who haphazardly controlled Ukraine since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Putin justified the attack by saying it was to defend two breakaway districts in eastern Ukraine from “genocide.” With Russian media presenting such a picture of his country, Zelensky recorded a message to Russians to refute the notion that Ukraine is the aggressor and that he is any kind of warmonger: “They told you I ordered an offensive on the Donbas, to shoot, to bomb, that there’s no question about it. But there are questions, and very simple ones. To shoot whom, to bomb what? Donetsk?”
Recounting his many visits and friends in the region — “I’ve seen the faces, the eyes” — he said, “It’s our land, it’s our history. What are we going to fight over, and with whom?” “The war has transformed the former comedian from a provincial politician with delusions of grandeur into a bona fide statesman,” wrote Melinda Haring of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center for Foreign Affairs on Friday.
Though he can be faulted for not carrying out political reforms quickly enough and for dragging his feet on hardening Ukraine’s long border with Russia over the last year, Haring said, Zelensky “has shown a stiff upper lip. He has demonstrated enormous physical courage, refusing to sit in a bunker but instead traveling openly with soldiers, and an unwavering patriotism that few expected from a Russian speaker from eastern Ukraine.”
“To his great credit, he has been unmovable.”
“We are here. We are in Kyiv. We are defending Ukraine.” That was the title of a video posted on Facebook Friday night by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as he vowed to defend his country while standing on a Kyiv street with other leaders of his administration.
“Good evening everyone! Leader of the faction is here. Head of the president’s administration is here. Prime Minister (Denys) Shmyhal is here. (Adviser to the head of the President’s Office Mykhailo) Podoliak is here. The President is here,” said Zelensky, pointing to the various men around him as he spoke, ending with himself.
“We are all here. Our military are here. Citizens and society are here. We are all here defending our independence, our state and it will remain so. Glory to our defenders! Glory to our women defenders! Glory to Ukraine!”
https://youtu.be/M_TCTsIMnro
Me says
Cometh the moment, cometh the man …
Our prayers and hopes are with the people of Ukraine this day, and every day that this senseless and unjustified invasion goes on.
Az gal says
Reminds me of our own fearless leader, George Washington. The true test of courage is during the crisis. You never know someone’s true spirit until you test it with fire. I know this personally.
On the other hand, I feel the fight is useless and many will perish, Russia will succeed anyway. And, is it really so bad to be under Russia nowadays? It’s not really communist anymore. China & Islam are the bigger threats.
Sofia2g says
Dear Bonnie and BNI readers,
Although this post is about Mr Zelensky, whose stance as a leader at this hour, I really appreciate and commend, I would like to add another point of view about this sad war.
It seems to me that the western countries are really trying to suffocate Russia and lead it to its fall as a super power. But if Russia falls, who is to rise? China of course. But is this to anyone’s benefit, other than to the evil of the world?
Although, as a Greek, I don’t support expansion by war, which will give Turkey a strong precedent, as if they needed one since they already occupy part of Cyprus and of Syria, however, I can’t stop thinking what the aftermath will be if Russia is severely punished.
They say that Putin doesn’t rule democratically. Of course, he doesn’t, but could he? How can you rule purely democratically such a vast country, with different cultures, which does not have a history of democracy?
Remember, that the only history they had before Putin was the authoritarian regimes of the tzars and of communism.
I think of my country after the liberation from the Ottoman Turks, 200 years ago and for some parts 100 years ago, and we went through a lot of turmoil until we had true democracy in the last 50 years. We had our first governor killed, heroes of our revolution jailed, we went through 2 dictatorships and a civil war.
And if you think about it, the same is true with the USA , as well. How long is it since you have had true democracy with equal rights for all people? Things don’t happen automatically.
My understanding is that Putin has tried to come to terms with the western world without compromising the rights of his country as a super power.
Ths war should have never happened, but unfortunately, the western countries seemed to beg for it, in orfer to bring down Russia. But again, the most important question today is, “If Russia goes down, who will go up?”
And how many people, from both sides, will have to die so that it is “proven” how evil and “mad” Putin is? Probably a lot, but do the people who have set up this chess game, really care?
I don’t know what Pr Teump would have done, but the Dems never gave him the chance. What a pity!
I pray that the Lord GOD will put an end to this madness the soonest.
BareNakedIslam says
Sofia, this war NEVER would have happened under Trump. Period. And Taiwan will soon be invaded by China, thanks to Biden’s status as a whore for China.
Sofia2g says
Since we mentioned Pr Trump, there is something I want to note. I hope I do not offend anyone by saying that, since I am a foreigner, but I care about the USA and have been praying for Pr Trump a lot.
My point is that I was quite disappointed with his last speeches in the campaign, and what bothered me was this distinction/division between “us and them”, the Dems and the Conservatives. First of all, I think that this rhetoric does him a great injustice, because he has proven that he cared about all Americans.
Second, it will probably not help in gaining votes, because not all people who vote for the Dem Party are like its leaders, and yet this rhetoric puts them in the same sack, and maybe puts off well-meaning democrats from voting for Pr Trump, who as I understand considers running again.
Personally, I would be more comfortable to hear him distinct between people with a socialist agenda and people who want justice, progress, etc.
Third, I think that he has accoomplished so much, that he does not need to bother with the Dems all the time, he should put forward his accomplishments, and should appeal to all people as a unifying President.
Again, I do not want to sound offensive to all my American friends, and I doubt if this is the right place for such I comment, but it really has been troubling me for a long time.
(If you don’t want to publish this comment, I will understand, but you could drop me a comment under my previous post, I would like to hear your opinion without being specific, of course. And if you publish it, surely these last lines are meant to be erased. Thank you, and again, if you find something offensive, please, blame it on my zeal.)
BareNakedIslam says
I agree with you. He needs to focus on his impressive record of accomplishments and not on the stolen election, if he runs again. This is a free speech blog for the most part. Your comments are very welcome here.
Linda Rivera says
Bonnie, Absolutely. There would be no war if Trump was president!
Despicable Traitor, Obama puppet/George Soros puppet Biden and his US Regime of Traitors hands’ are Covered with Blood.
This never happened during Trump’s presidency, but under American and British leaders, the mad men ‘leaders’ constantly treated Putin and Russia with hostility and extreme contempt. They constantly provoked Putin without cause and for no reason.
BareNakedIslam says
Yes, Russia invaded Georgia under GW Bush, Crimea under Obama and now Ukraine under Biden. They didn’t even try to invade anything under Trump.
Classy Infidel says
Biden has two masters ($$ and The Great Reset crowd) and he bears responsibility for this war. There was no invasion as Putin wanted to negotiate early on but Zelenskyi foolishly trusted Biden.
Today, Russia started the real invasion and by now, I hope Zelenskyi understands that he is on his own. He was used to deflect from Biden’s catastrophic mismanagement of the economy and much more.
About the bullets he needs: another beauty. He gave guns out to every citizen but didn’t think about citizens killing citizens, regardless of the reason.
As of now, they will be meeting tomorrow morning to negotiate a ceasefire. I think Zelenskyi will agree and this war will soon be over and Putin will have gained what he rightfully wanted. Meanwhile, Biden will attempt to intervene and I hope Zelenskyi is wiser than when this all started.
In this conflict, I understand both sides.
BareNakedIslam says
I don’t think Putin will stop until he takes over Kiev.
Classy Infidel says
I listened to so many short interviews of random citizens on the streets from Kiev, one is 28 min in length. They all tell the same story. They do not care who rules over them at this point in time because nothing has improved in the country since Zelenskyi was elected.
I can say even more but I will not write it out here but suffice that beware of media that prop up one side.
The question now: Is Zelenskyi willing to allow his country to be destroyed or fully taken over by Russia so he can please those who are truly pulling the strings? And if yes, why?
BareNakedIslam says
I’m not sure he has a choice.
Greer says
You need to look at Trumps 2 visits to the WEF with Klaus and realise he is your enemy ..and grow up.
BareNakedIslam says
What’s the WEF? Not that it would change my mind about him, whatever it is. I am grown up, but you are obviously a leftist idiot.
BLR says
Sofia2g
Thoughtful post and agree the Russian people are not our enemy .
Karen says
I have had time to think about all of these posts and have come to believe we are being propagandized by both sides. I’m basing my thoughts and feelings on my own visit to Ukraine in 2019…before pandemic, before getting the blithering idiot in office, before we were aware that we were only a blink of the eye, away from the ‘great reset’.
The US deep state has been trying to destabilize the Ukraine for decades. The state department was training people to bring down the government and to make it look like a grassroots movement. I hate seeing anyone living with the destruction of what a war brings and the tremendous fear . When I visited there, the state department put out alerts telling travelers to stay out of metro stations and careful around ATMs as you might be a target. It also advised that if you have problems arise to be very careful of the police and that they are very corrupt…that you should carry the embassy number with you, at all times. This is the only country in the world that I have traveled to, that I did not leave my hotel for even a walk around the block without a guide.
When you drive in from the airport, on the right side of the road, there are three car dealerships right next to one another. They are Audi, BMW, and Porsche and they all belonged to Joe Biden’s brother. To put that in perspective, I believe that the average Ukrainian make about 350-400 euros a month…do you really think they would be buying those cars???
There were a couple of weird incidents from the time of pick up at the airport and within the first hour at the hotel. First, I asked my driver if he spoke English, and he indicated ‘very little’. I thought that odd since the hotel had arranged the pick up…why would you send someone who spoke little English, to pick up an American??? Secondly, at check in, I wanted to pay cash for my stay rather than give any credit card info. A receipt was printed out, I was asked to sign it, and then the cash was wrapped in the receipt and handed to a man behind her…who took it somewhere else. He came back and handed me the change. That indicated there was no ‘cash drawer’ at reception. This was a large, five star hotel. Again, no one really wanted to use English at check in. I learned after arriving home that a law was passed about six months before that said that only Ukrainian was to be spoken!!! The third thing that happened was, while I was unpacking, I had my balcony doors open and almost suddenly I heard a lot of people (I was on the third floor), and thousands upon thousands of people seem to come from out of nowhere to protest. I called the desk to ask what was going on because there had been a small explosion below my balcony. I was told that they were protesting of the buying and selling of their land. Again, when I got home, I learned that Soros was trying (and did) to buy a billion dollars of farmland (sort of the same thing Gates is doing here). This is a country of people who had seven million people starved by Stalin, so you can see why they were concerned!!! So the question is, what has happened to the land and the dealerships with all this is going on???
The one question no one seems to be asking is if all of the globalists are for all of this, what’s in it for all of us. We should have learned after the last two years, that the governments of the world are not worried about their citizens or trying to do anything good for them…so what is this really about???
Sorry this is long, but wanted to give some context to all of it!!!
BareNakedIslam says
Thanks for the insight, Karen.
Cassandra says
Excellent analysis. ❤️🩹
Hartmut says
No question this guy showed cojones and steps it up against the Russian bear. Even if he might lose in the end, he shows how far sheer will can take things.
southern knight says
Any information regarding 11 Wuhan style medical labs 7 of which supposedly taken out by Russia and backed by certain elements in the US.Info on Pelosi s Kerry Biden and other Democrat family members involved in Energy company in Ukraine nothing on media but on social media showing names and maps with locations of these labs.Not surprised any more as what is happening and what the media is saying what is happening.
Steve says
Yep he said that alright. I am sitting on the Western side of the city limits of Kyiv in my apartment watching and listening to the battle. Anyone that can has volunteered to fight. Most are heping to make Molotav Cocktails 🙂 The Russians bit off more than they can chew. Since I am a foreign national the only thing I can do is give money, food, and purchase fuel for the “cocktails.” Pray for us all. It is ugly and the Ukrainians will fight to the last person if neccessary.
BareNakedIslam says
Steve, people around the world are praying for them, and now more and more countries – US and Europe- are sending them weapons they need to hold back the invaders.
gornisht-helfen says
Amazing story. Heroic leader.
Hat tip : Judy
Ghulam says
Steve
You should get out of there while you can. When the Russian tanks roll into the city after a probable bloodbath, their soldiers will start pillaging, murdering and raping. They won’t spare you just because you’re a “foreigner.” That’s the nature of war. Shit happens and you’ll have yourself to blame.
Linda Rivera says
Please God, Bless and protect Your People, the Jews!
https://aish.com/in-ukraine-the-escape-road-not-taken/
In Ukraine, The Escape Road Not Taken
February 27,
| by Sara Yoheved Rigler
The Jews of the Ukraine are facing two levels of danger.
I cried when I read about the busses lined up in Uman to transport the Jews to the Kiev airport from which they could fly to safety in Israel. As soon as the Russian bombs started to fall on Thursday, the bus drivers naturally ran home to be with their families, leaving the Jews stranded.
All the citizens of the Ukraine are in danger in the face of the Russian invasion. Jews, however, face a double layer of danger. The default European reaction in times of crisis is to scapegoat the Jews.
The history of Ukrainian treatment of Jews, from massacres and pogroms to their unbridled support of the Nazis, does not auger well for the Jews now trapped in this war. Indeed, during the 2014 conflict between Russia and Ukraine, anti-Semitic incidents were reported.
“Until yesterday morning no one believed this could actually happen.”
Anticipating the danger a month ago, Israel sprang into action. The Israeli government devised a contingency plan to bring all 200,000* Ukrainian Jews to Israel, as they had done with the airlift of endangered Ethiopian Jews in 1991.
Israel would send planes to airlift the Jews to safety in Israel, provide them with places to live, food, world-class medical care, and all their needs as they settled into their new home. As diplomats from all other countries were fleeing the Ukraine, Israel sent in extra diplomats to process the anticipated wave of fugitives.
On Sunday, February 20, with the Russian invasion imminent, Israel opened its Kiev embassy and Lvov consulate, normally closed on Sundays, for the expected throngs of Jews seeking escape. Ten people showed up at the Kiev embassy, three in Lvov.
That Sunday, two planes of Ukrainian Jews landed in Israel. One held 75 people, the other 22 people.
When Russia launched its invasion on Thursday, Rabbi Moshe Weber, a Chabad emissary in the eastern-Ukraine city of Dnipro, announced, “Until yesterday morning no one believed this could actually happen… There’s definitely a sense of shock here.”
Echoes of the Past
I cried for a second reason when I read about the immobilized busses in Uman, the escape road not taken. It reminded me of a story in Eli Wiesel’s autobiography.
The Nazis occupied Hungary in March, 1944. By that time most of Europe’s Jews had been murdered. While the Nazis tried to keep “The Final Solution” secret, some Jews who had escaped the trains and the camps had made their way to Hungary with their dire warnings.
But the Jews there found it hard to accept what they were hearing. As Wiesel described, “…the older people said, ‘We’ve been fed lies. The people of Goethe and Schiller cannot sink to barbarism.’”
Even when the Jews of Wiesel’s town Sighet were stripped of all rights, made to wear the yellow star, beaten, robbed, and herded into a ghetto, they did not fathom the fatal danger they faced. Wiesel wrote:
The truth is that some Jews in Sighet could have escaped the ghetto…. Maria – our old housekeeper, wonderful Maria who had worked for us since I was born—begged us to follow her to her home. She offered us her cabin in a remote hamlet.
There would be room for all six of us, and Grandma Nissel as well. Seven in one cabin? Yes, she swore it, as Christ was her witness. She would take care of us, she would handle everything. We said no, politely but firmly.1
The Wiesel family, like all the Jews of the region, were deported to the death camps. His grandparents, parents, and younger sister were murdered there. Eli Wiesel survived to forever rue the escape road not taken.
Escape in the Middle of the Party
Another story, this one with a happy ending: A family of wealthy German Jews was under surveillance by the Gestapo. Nazi Jew-hatred was manifestly clear by that time. This family read the handwriting on the wall and wanted to flee, but a Gestapo car was parked across from their spacious home to prevent that.
For their son’s Bar Mitzvah, they threw a grand party. Hundreds of guests came in and out of the house. At some point during the party, the family, carrying nothing, mingled with the exiting guests and left. They walked to their automobile parked a few blocks away, already packed with a couple of suitcases.
By the time anyone, including the servants, realized that the hosts were missing, the family had already crossed the border. They left behind their home, their expensive furniture, the Persian rugs, the precious artwork on the walls, and everything that did not fit into those two bags.
But they escaped with their lives. They eventually made their way to America, and have children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
If Jews don’t leave in the middle of the party, is it possible they won’t be able to leave at all?
When I heard this story from one grandchild years ago, during a spike in antisemitism in France, I wondered: If Jews don’t leave in the middle of the party, is it possible they won’t be able to leave at all?
The head of Hatzalah in the Ukraine, Shlomo Rosilio, explained on Wednesday night, hours before the invasion, that it’s hard for a family with children to pick up and leave. “They worry that some Ukrainian guy may come in and take whatever they have if they leave. They won’t have anything to come back to. So, no one wants to leave their home.”
Of course, if they knew that their very lives would be in danger, they would have boarded those busses before it was too late. Throughout Jewish history, there has been a fine, hard-to-determine line between danger and doom.
Denying a frightening reality is a basic human response—whether it’s a terminal diagnosis, an unfaithful spouse, or an imminent war. The drive to optimism, that it will all work out, can serve as a noble force that keeps us on our feet when we would otherwise be writhing on the floor in despair.
The Jews of the Ukraine held onto such hope rather than walking away from their homes, communities, and way of life. Who knows what we would have done if we were in their situation.
I am praying for the safety of the Jews of the Ukraine. And I continue to pray for their successful re-settlement here in Israel.
*The estimated number of Ukrainian Jews fluctuates between 40,000 and 200,000, which includes those with one Jewish grandparent, which makes them eligible for Israeli citizenship by the Law of Return.
Memoirs: All Rivers Run to the Sea (Alfred A. Knopf, 1994) p. 63.
See also Dispatch from Ukraine
Cassandra says
Thank you for this. However I know my mother never recovered even though she was only twelve when forced to leave Czechoslovakia because of the Nazis, to make the perilous journey to England. 💔😓
Linda Rivera says
Wow! I didn’t know any of this! Courageous Zelensky is Amazing! A great HERO who will go down in the history books!
US rulers who seized power by nefarious acts perpetrate Horrific HIGH TREASON. And there are NO arrests for their shocking treason. America will be conquered easily by China if this treason is not stopped immediately.
Ukraine, America and every ally of America is horribly betrayed by Obama puppet/George Soros puppet Biden and the U.S. Regime of Traitors
https://www.foxnews.com/media/former-pentagon-chief-of-staff-rips-biden-over-us-intel-report-its-a-colossal-failure-of-leadership?
Former Pentagon chief of staff rips Biden over US intel report: ‘It’s a colossal failure of leadership’
Reports claim China shared US intel with Russia regarding the US response to Putin’s aggression
Former Pentagon chief of staff Kash Patel slammed President Biden for his “colossal failure of leadership” after reports surfaced he shared intelligence on the potential U.S. response to Russian aggression with China, who then shared the information with Russia. Patel joined “Sunday Morning Futures” to highlight the difference between how the Biden administration and the Trump administration have handled foreign policy…….
The fact that the commander in chief wouldn’t answer that question and that no one is covering leads me to believe that he took classified intelligence and the reporting is accurate now from multiple sources and handed it over to our world’s biggest enemy, U.S’., his biggest enemy, China.
And then, of course, China was going to turn around and give it to Russia because Xi Jinping and Putin have paired up and teamed up against the United States of America………..
We, as a United States are actually sharing classified information that jeopardizes Ukrainian National Security Assistance, European national security interests and Americans lives.
It’s being shared with our enemy who is sharing it with the next biggest enemy of America. It is just something that never happened under Trump, and the fact that it’s happening under Biden needs to be fully investigated.
Ghulam says
Wow the Ukies allowed a Jew become their leader. They’re far more progressive than I thought.
Zelensky’s my boy. I’m rooting for you. Stick it to that big bad asshole Putin — hit him squarely in the balls. When that douchebag cries, I’ll buy you a beer and felafel.
gornisht-helfen says
Ghulam, Zelensky won the election with 70% of the voters. (one site said 76%) I too am amazed. He is a real leader, not fleeing from his country but in military garb. Ready to fight, if necessary. Of course. he is top target for Putin, and then his family. I pray for President Zelensky. A true hero.