Ukraine's President Zelenskiy — from sitcom star to statesman
Despite only being elected nine months ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been thrust onto the world stage on several occasions. Here are some of the times the former comedian made his mark.
The sitcom president
Volodymyr Zelenskiy was a well-known figure in Ukraine before he stood for president — but not as a politician. The comedian and actor starred in a 2015 TV show called "Servant of the People," in which he played a fictional president of Ukraine. In 2018 his production company formed a political party of the same name, and in December 2018 he announced he really was running for president.
Fiction becomes reality
Beating the odds, Zelenskiy was elected as president on April 21, 2019. The media-savvy TV star used social media to run an almost entirely online campaign and performed well in the polls from the start. The 41-year-old was also credited with appealing to a younger generation.
'A PERFECT PHONE CALL'
Zelenskiy was drawn into an international controversy early in his term. A July phone call with US President Donald Trump put Ukraine in the center of the Trump impeachment case. Trump is accused of withholding $400 million (€360 million) in aid to Ukraine to pressure Zelenskiy to investigate Trump's rival Joe Biden. Trump has denied wrongdoing and later tweeted it was a "PERFECT PHONE CALL."
Peace talks with Putin
Zelenskiy has made easing tensions with Russia a primary goal of his presidency. As a war between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists dragged on into its fifth year, Germany and France arranged a Paris summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskiy in December 2019. Among other things, the two sides agreed to several major prisoner exchanges.
Iran plane crash perpetrators 'must be held accountable'
Ukraine entered the headlines again in January 2020 after a Ukrainian airliner was shot down over Tehran, killing 176 people, on the same night that Iran fired missiles at US airbases in Iraq. Zelenskiy has been called on by the nations of the victims to act as a mediator with Iran to gain compensation for those affected. "The perpetrators must be held accountable," he said.
'Second chance' for his government
In January 2020, Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk offered his resignation after audio tapes emerged in which he appeared to criticize Zelenskiy's knowledge of economics, saying the president needed to be better educated. Honcharuk resigned on Friday, but Zelenskiy said he would give his government a "second chance" — though he admitted the remarks were "unpleasant."