In the last week of February, with nearly 200,000 Russian troops stationed on his country’s border, Zelensky took his peace case to the Russian people after his contact with their president was met with silence. In a video statement in which he admitted that there was little chance of his words being broadcast on Russian television, he looked like almost every other statesman in the West. He was wearing a dark suit with a suitable tie. His white shirt with a wide collar was clean and fresh. One could only make out a small rooster microphone attached to the lapel of his jacket, and his clean-shaven face was warm and evenly lit.
As he spoke directly into the camera, in the background was the nation’s flag, as well as the outlines of its geography on a map. These two elements combine to define the country as a matter of physical territory and mental aspiration. Everything in the frame, the atmosphere and the costumes depicts Zelenski as a perfect politician.
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But when he began to speak, his words dispelled the idea. “I am not addressing you as president,” he said in Russian. “I am addressing you as a citizen of Ukraine.
In an emotional address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on February 24 that nearly 200,000 Russian troops are beyond the border with Russia.
Zelenski seems to have understood that in 2022, when wartime diplomacy is practiced through video calls and social media posts, eloquence is somewhere between controlled formality and uncontrolled emotion. So, in just a few days, he defined himself as extremely responsible for the fate of his country, but also as proud of every person who fights to protect it. In his public statements, the president is just another citizen who is desperately trying to do the right thing, to uphold the principles of democracy, to survive. His image is that of deep human contradiction.
When Zelenski addresses his compatriots and the world, his words are frank. He is remarkably candid. The rhythm of his speeches is striking. His rhetoric does not rise, but his sentences have the rhythm of poetry.
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“We know for sure that we do not need a war,” Zelenski said. “Not the Cold War, not the hot war, not the hybrid. He moves to his feet. He snorted. These are exquisite notes of imperfection.
In an ever-expanding series of videos and addresses in Ukrainian, Zelensky speaks in a triptych, in a trio of short, declarative sentences or invigorating fragments. He strikes a single word to express his opinion. His phrase holds time like a drum. Over the days, the tie disappears. The suit is undressed. The radiance of a rested, well-fed man dulls. The personal traps of hierarchical power have been rejected.
In a social media post on the day borders were breached and explosions erupted in Ukrainian cities, Zelensky asked Ukrainians to remain calm. He is without a tie. He is still in his suit; his white shirt is in order. But he no longer looks neat, clean-shaven. His position is much more informal as he looks down at the camera. He promises his compatriots that the government has not lost its footing. The government is functioning. The system worked on behalf of the citizens.
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“We are working; the army is working. The whole security and defense sector of Ukraine is working,” Zelensky said.
In a video message posted on social media on February 24th, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Ukrainians to remain calm and stay at home if they can. (Office of the President of Ukraine)
Conditions have worsened. The day after the fighting began, false rumors surfaced that Zelensky had fled on his own. He and his family were marked by the Russians for capture or death. The United States offered him a way out, but he turned it down with the famous remark, “I need ammunition, not transportation.” And Zelenski published again. It seems to be outside, but in Kyiv, the country’s capital and largest city, it is alarmingly quiet, except for the sound of his voice. The sky is dark, but he and the government ministers who surround him like a choir are thrown into a golden aura by the surrounding lights. Zelensky is no longer in a suit. He is wearing a military dark T-shirt and jacket. The angle of the camera shifts as it takes into account every man present. And the word that Zelensky repeats as a spell? Here.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released a video on February 25th in which the leader said he was among those who continue to defend Kyiv. (Washington Post)
When his words once focused on the actions of the Ukrainian government, now he simply assures the country that the government has not disappeared; he did not abandon them. He’s here. He’s here. He says the word nine times, here, here. Over and over. “We are all here. Our army is here; the citizens and the society are here, “he said. And only this is a kind of triumph.
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Four days passed and the casualties increased, and civilians took up arms or fled in search of shelter. Zelenski delivered a video address to the European Parliament on March 1st. In Brussels, men and women in suits and ties sit at their desks in the brightly lit safety of their audience and look up at the video monitors. Many of them wear ribbons in yellow and blue on the Ukrainian flag. The needles are meant to show solidarity with the Ukrainian people, but attaching a colored ribbon to the lapel – pink for breast cancer, red for AIDS, green for the environment, purple for pancreatic and Alzheimer’s cancer and epilepsy – is so common and easy to do. . Is there any meaning left in the tape? Zelenski wears his already familiar olive dark T-shirt in a video call that is blurry, spare and gloomy. Its background looks gray as a storm cloud. The yellow of the Ukrainian flag over his right shoulder is the only glimmer of light. Zelensky has a thin beard and, as he speaks, raises his hands in a gesture of irritation. He cuts the air with his hands. He does not look as disheveled as he seems to be a man who has thrown away all layers of pretense, decency, and diplomatic stupidity, until what remains is an open wound to the terrible truth. Zelenski’s vulnerability is obvious; he does not try to cover it up.
The translator of the speech of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the European Parliament on March 1 was injured during the address. (Washington Post)
Outside the camera, the translator’s voice broke as Zelenski described the killing of children and the courage of civilians. Listeners can hear a sharp breath, as if the translator hopes that a boost of oxygen can calm emotions. “We are fighting,” Zelenski said with awkward zeal. “Only for our land and for our freedom.”
Russia aims to wipe out Ukraine, its history and people, President Vladimir Zelensky said in a video on March 2, the seventh day of Moscow’s invasion.
On Wednesday, Zelensky looked exhausted. He was wearing his T-shirt uniform. But he was speaking from a rostrum with the Ukrainian coat of arms attached to the front. It was positioned in front of a background on which “the Office of the President of Ukraine” was written again and again, and the coat of arms was printed in a repeating pattern. Next to him was the flag of the country. The image echoed like a steel declaration of existence, a visual protection for what he warned Russian troops were trying to do. “They all have an order to erase our history, to erase our country, to erase us all. Deletes. That will not happen, Zelenski said. The president was here. And he was still working.