One of today’s most influential politicians celebrates his forty-fifth birthday on Wednesday Volodymyr Zelenskyi. Time magazine, Politico’s website and the Financial Times named him person of the year 2022. His wife, Olena, gave her husband a heartwarming wish.

“You often ask me how he has changed over the years. And I always answer: ‘He hasn’t changed. He’s the same, the same guy I met when we were seventeen,’” she wrote under a photo together with her partner Olene Zelenska.

Give me a chance to laugh with you!

“But actually something has changed, you haven’t laughed much lately. For example, like in our photo. I wish you more reasons to smile. And you know what that means. We all know that. You have enough stubbornness. Most importantly, please be healthy. I want to laugh with you forever. Give me a chance!” added the first lady of Ukraine to her emotional whim.

The “gift” to Volodymyr Zelensky was also a tank, which he has repeatedly asked Western nations for. “We have to look at it realistically. It’s not about five, ten or fifteen dances. The need is bigger.” the president said on Tuesday, thanking all allies for their support. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday that Berlin would provide Ukraine with 14 Leopard 2A6 tanks. Hebestreit, the chancellor’s spokesperson, said that.

The invasion of Ukraine has been going on for almost a year

Currently, there are only a few weeks left until the day Russia militarily invaded Ukraine last year and started a war. This shocked not only the president there, Volodymyr Zelensky, but the whole world. The president strongly opposed the invasion and announced that his people would not surrender to Russia.

The Ukrainian president himself rejected an offer to leave the country shortly after the Russian occupation and remain in his homeland. During that time, he was also suspected of being one of the main targets of Russian attacks. Ukraine managed to thwart the assassination of their head of state several times.

He won the Ukrainian StarDance

After a long months of war, it is more than clear that the Ukrainian president has attracted a wave of sympathy. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Zelenskyi has spoken to his citizens almost daily via video speech, in which he supports Ukrainians and urges them to remain steadfast.

However, Volodymyr Zelenskyi was not always politically active. Zelenskyi was born to Jewish parents on January 5, 1978 in the industrial town of Kryvyi Rih. He also studied law in the same city, but never made a living. At the start of the new millennium, he founded the television company Kvartal 95, where he could use his acting talents. He rose to prominence in the country as a voice actor, he took on the lead role in the comedy series Servant of the Nation, where the main character happened to be the president of Ukraine. He was also the winner of the dance competition StardDance… where the stars dance.

From comedians to top politicians

He entered political life only in May 2019, when he took office as president of the country. Instead, he was seen as a political outsider with no clear views. But that changed after the Russian invasion last February. Thanks to his bravery, Zelenskyj became the hero of world celebrities. Among the stars that the president of Ukraine has received are, for example, British businessman and billionaire Richard Branson, American actor Ben Stiller or Sean Penn working on a war documentary, U2 frontman Bono Vox or presenter David Letterman.

Historical center of Ukrainian port city Odessa has recently been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Russia was the only objector, wrote AFP.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that way Dutch lawsuit against Russia over the downing of flight MH17 with 298 people on board in 2014 is acceptable.

The Ministry of Defense received the first compensation from the EU for military materials sent to Ukraine amounting to about 155 million CZK. Further installments will follow.

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