
Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Education
- degree law - Kyiv National Economic University
Overview
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy is a Ukrainian politician and former comedian and actor who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019.
Born to a Ukrainian Jewish family, Zelenskyy grew up as a native Russian speaker in Kryvyi Rih, a major city of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in central Ukraine. Prior to his acting career, he obtained a degree in law from the Kyiv National Economic University. He then pursued a career in comedy and created the production company Kvartal 95, which produced films, cartoons, and TV shows including the TV series Servant of the People, in which Zelenskyy played the role of the Ukrainian president. The series aired from 2015 to 2019 and was immensely popular. A political party bearing the same name as the television show was created in March 2018 by employees of Kvartal 95.
During his presidential campaign, Zelenskyy promised to end Ukraine's protracted conflict with Russia, and he has attempted to engage in dialogue with Russian president Vladimir Putin. His administration faced an escalation of tensions with Russia in 2021, culminating in the launch of an ongoing full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. Zelenskyy's strategy during the Russian military buildup was to calm the Ukrainian populace and assure the international community that Ukraine was not seeking to retaliate. He initially distanced himself from warnings of an imminent war, while also calling for security guarantees and military support from NATO to "withstand" the threat. After the start of the invasion, Zelenskyy declared martial law across Ukraine and a general mobilization of the armed forces. His leadership during the crisis has won him widespread international praise, and he has been described as a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance. Zelenskyy was named the Time Person of the Year for 2022, and opinion polls in Ukraine have ranked him as Ukraine's greatest president.
In September 2003, Zelenskyy married Olena Kiyashko, with whom he had attended school and university. Kiyashko worked as a scriptwriter at Kvartal 95. The couple's first daughter, Oleksandra, was born in July 2004. Their son, Kyrylo, was born in January 2013. In Zelenskyy's 2014 movie 8 New Dates, their daughter played Sasha, the daughter of the protagonist. In 2016, she participated in the show The Comedy Comet Company Comedy's Kids and won ₴50,000. The family lives in Kyiv.
Zelenskyy's first language is Russian, and he is also fluent in Ukrainian and English. His assets were worth about ₴37 million (about US$1.5 million) in 2018.
Early Life
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy was born to Jewish parents on 25 January 1978 in Kryvyi Rih, then in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. His father, Oleksandr Zelenskyy, is a professor and computer scientist and the head of the Department of Cybernetics and Computing Hardware at the Kryvyi Rih State University of Economics and Technology; his mother, Rymma Zelenska, used to work as an engineer. His grandfather, Semyon (Simon) Ivanovych Zelenskyy, served as an infantryman, reaching the rank of colonel in the Red Army (in the 57th Guards Motor Rifle Division) during World War II , Semyon's father and three brothers were killed in the Holocaust. In March 2022, Zelenskyy said that his great-grandparents had been killed after German troops burned their home to the ground during a massacre.
Before starting elementary school, Zelenskyy lived for four years in the Mongolian city of Erdenet, where his father worked. Zelenskyy grew up speaking Russian. At the age of 16 he passed the Test of English as a Foreign Language and received an education grant to study in Israel, but his father did not allow him to go. He later earned a law degree from the Kryvyi Rih Institute of Economics, then a department of Kyiv National Economic University and now part of Kryvyi Rih National University, but never worked in the legal field
Career
- President of Ukraine - Ukrainian politician , former comedian , actor
Recognition
On 27 March 2022, Slovakia awarded Zelenskyy one of the country's top awards, the State Award of Alexander Dubček. Eduard Heger, the Slovak prime minister, compared the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. British newspaper Financial Times selected Zelenskyy as Person of the Year in 2022.
Ukraine: Honorary Diploma of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine
Czech Republic: CZE Rad Bileho Lva 1 tridy BAR.svg Order of the White Lion, First Class
France: Legion Honneur GC ribbon.svg Grand Cross of the Order of the Legion of Honour
Germany: Charlemagne Prize
Latvia: LVA Order of Viesturs V kl.PNG Commander of Grand Cross of the Order of Viesturs
Lithuania: LTU Order of Vytautas the Great with the Golden Chain BAR.png Order of Vytautas the Great with the Golden Chain
Poland: Jan Karski Eagle Award
Slovakia: State Award of Alexander Dubček
United Kingdom: Sir Winston Churchill Leadership Award
United States:
Ronald Reagan Freedom Award
John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award
Philadelphia Liberty Medal
Ripple of Hope Award