Gravitas Plus: The story of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky

hello and welcome to gravitas plus i'm palki sharma padhyay how much do you know about volodymir zelensky he's the president of ukraine the west is drawing parallels between him and the chinese student who stood in front of a tank in tiananmen square in 1989 they say like him zelensky too is standing up to the russian president vladimir putin malody merzelenski has become the most admired person of the free world his legos are being sold there is zielinski merchandise so much is being written about him but mostly by the west so far we've seen zielenski through the western lens one that sees putin as the villain and zelensky as the hero putin the man who tags polar bears and zelensky the president who dances to cha-cha putin is called zelensky is funny putin barely talks about his family zelinski shares photos of his wife and children ever since the war in ukraine broke out the west has presented zilenski as the anti-thesis of putin basically the good guy in this story but this is the west story let's look at zelensky independent of the story who is he some say like putin zielinski too has authoritarian traits bologna zelensky is 44 years old he grew up in a town called kriviri this is where it's located on the map zelensky's father was a computer science professor his mother was an engineer he grew up in one of the better neighborhoods of the town while the young men of kriviri wore track suits zilenski wore classy suits he liked english rock he played the guitar even she had a pair of blue jeans with his friend alexander pikalov the denim would go back and forth between the two depending on who had a date so goes the story the soviet union though collapsed when zielenski was growing up the post-soviet era gave him the chance to mock politicians in broad daylight a comedy show sprung up on russian tv called kvn it bit teams from across former soviet states against one another at 17 zielenski became part of the team representing krivi re soon he and his friends created their own troop it was named the 95th quarter or quartal 95. critics say zelensky's comedy was quote unquote burial vulgar and working class it is said that zielinski's mother once visited the rehearsal she was not happy with what she saw the distressed woman would pull zilenski's friend aside and ask he's going to be a lawyer isn't he zelensky did go on to study law but he built a career in comedy back in those days oligarchs would often invite comics and satirists to their party zelensky was invited to perform at viktor yanukovych's birthday party we are talking about the ukrainian president viktor yanukovych who was ousted in the euro medan revolution of 2014. did zilenski perform before yanukovych reports say he did when crimea was annexed in 2014 zielinski declared he did not want anything to do with russia his troop cut all ties with the russian market it also donated one million driveniya to the ukrainian army not only was he a successful comic but also ukraine's most successful producer he had a fancy office in kiev with a panoramic view of the city he bought a 15-room villa in tuscany one that he never declared during his presidential campaign by 2012 long before crimea happened zielinski was sitting on some 15 million dollars he did not lose much by cutting off ties with russia but he made immense gains in terms of his popularity soon zilinski started work on his most successful show a sitcom called servant of the people he played a high school teacher named goloborotko was caught on tape ranting about corruption and this monologue goes viral and the teacher becomes president golobarodko sets out to chart his own path he surrounds himself with old friends instead of the old ruling class he appoints inexperienced people to office turns out all of this could have been a campaign announcement spread over three seasons the show ran from 2015 to 2019 in the final hours of 2018 zelensky announced that he would run for office he had no experience but two big promises one he would fight corruption and confront ukraine's oligarchs and two he would end the war in donbass zielenski declared you don't need experience to be president you just need to be a decent human being valodim zelensky is a native russian speaker his career as comic was all about depicting past presidents in a bad light be it viktor yushchenko viktor yanukovych or petro poroshenko zielenski promised to be nothing like them he projected himself as the total alternative to these presidents 73 of ukrainian voters put their weight behind him he assumed office on the second of may 2019 just like golobarotko zelensky installed friends in high offices beat his writing partners the head of his production company or his lawyer they were all made part of the government and here we are three years later the warren donbass has not ended instead it has escalated into europe's biggest crisis since world war ii about a thousand civilians have been killed in ukraine alone more than fifteen hundred people have been injured at least three million people have fled ukraine zelensky failed to keep his promise and he could not have failed in a worse way but he did rise to the crisis when the u.s offered to fly him out of ukraine zielinski said i need ammo not a ride the president appears on tv every day and every day he's wearing a sap green t-shirt he's visibly exhausted and mostly unshaved on the sixth day of the war zielinski addressed the european parliament via a video link do prove that you're with us he said his interpreter appeared to choke on his tears do prove that he will not let us go zilenski continued one observer later noted it was as if charlie chaplin had morphed into winston churchill you see this man knows tv he's pulling off what putin had during the chechen war the daily press appearances videos from war zones sharing meals with troops addressing parliaments around the world and all of this is working zelensky has become the most popular politician in the u.s more popular than even u.s president joe biden how tough should that be you could ask zilenski knows how to win people over he knows gimmicks after he became president he appointed his press secretary through an open competition there were four thousand candidates and each of them were tested on their sense of humor and tolerance for stress zelensky also likes theatrics he announced his election bid on live television on new year's eve he once held a 14-hour long press conference at a food market here's something he does not like comedy at his expense if comic zilenski were to look at president zielinski today he would get a lot of fodder for his scripts one the president has not been able to weed out corruption two the pandora papers have exposed zelensky's murky businesses volodymyr zelensky has offshore holdings his own companies in british virgin islands cyprus and belize his team says zelensky is quote unquote like any other business person in ukraine but you don't get to be both a businessman and a statesman three zelensky has also displayed authoritarian traits he has banned three tv stations in ukraine observers say just like putin zielenski too may be seizing power from the oligarchs only to strengthen his own personal authority and advance his interests in 2020 zielinski dismissed a general prosecutor because he reportedly refused to pursue cases that helped the president's cause a governor of a national bank was removed too because he was not loyal enough the deputy governor too was removed because she had raised concerns about the bank's independence four zelensky has failed to deliver his biggest campaign promise there is no peace in donbass the region has now been taken over by russian forces five zielenski may have underplayed warnings of the war he first accused the west of hurting ukraine's morale then he decided to spook the world he said russia would attack on the 16th of february later he said he was only quoting media reports today zelinski spends his days in bunkers cheering his forces appearing on tv every now and then he's the only ukrainian president to face a full-fledged invasion he has the support of his voters his approval ratings are at an all-time high there is obviously a threat to his life zelensky after all is reportedly russia's target number one he's often heard telling global leaders that this might be the last time you see me alive and every time a parliament applauds zilensky he says thank you but we want you to do more there is no doubt he has risen up to the occasion but come to think of it he did not have much of a choice either fleeing ukraine means losing presidency and a lot more the western media is drawing parallels between zelensky and the emergency team that responded to 911 they've already pronounced him a hero but it may be too early to say how history will judge this president of ukraine [Music]

Channel: WION

Views: 3,900,555

Keywords: russia ukraine war, zelensky, russia, ukraine, russia ukraine, russia ukraine news, russia vs ukraine, ukraine russia news, russia ukraine conflict, ukraine russia, ukraine russia war, russia war ukraine, russia invades ukraine, volodymyr zelensky, ukraine news, ukraine russia border, russia invading ukraine, ukraine war, russia and ukraine, russia ukraine border, russia ukraine crisis, ukraine and russia, russia ukraine invasion, gravitas plus, palki sharma upadhyay

Id: Kn2TCq6R8Tw

Length: 9min 6sec (546 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 27 2022

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[u/Serocco]

Ian Dawson in the comments said it best.

"The narrative [from the reporter] seems to criticize Zelenskyy for doing decent things (standing up to corruption) and for wearing green T-shirts on TV. It also seems to imply he is somehow to blame for Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine."

[u/Xander_PrimeXXI]

BJP making NATO sound based