Source: Being Volodymyr Zelenskiy: How war has changed Ukraine’s leader | Reuters
Intense. Impatient. Sleep-deprived. Step into the relentless world of Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s wartime president.
The 46-year-old said his ambition when he was elected in 2019 had been to help Ukraine become a modern democracy, before that mission was shattered by Russia’s invasion in 2022.
“All I wanted five years ago was a very liberal country with a liberal economy,” Zelenskiy, a former stand-up comic, told Reuters in an interview in May on the fifth anniversary of his inauguration.
This week, he instead found himself professing his desire to kill Russian President Vladimir Putin as he expressed anger and anguish over an airstrike that hit Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital.
The war-hardened Zelenskiy who’s exhorted Western leaders to action at the NATO summit in Washington in recent days is a world away from the political novice who became president, let alone the TV comedian who was a showbiz heavyweight for years before.
He once even won Ukraine’s version of “Dancing with the Stars”.
The clean-shaven, boyish Zelenskiy sworn in as president in Kyiv in 2019 wearing a stylish suit fitted to his slight frame has been replaced by a much older looking, heavier-set, brooding figure typically clad in paramilitary fatigues with unshaven stubble and dark circles under his eyes.
Zelenskiy largely veered away from questions about himself in the interview with Reuters, instead focusing on his deep frustrations with some of Ukraine’s wartime allies and returning to his central message: the West must to do more to help.
Reuters spoke to eight current and former Ukrainian and foreign officials who have worked with Zelenskiy, as well as several friends and colleagues from his past.
They paint a portrait of a leader who has become tougher and more decisive, less tolerant of mistakes and even prone to paranoia, as he copes with round-the-clock stress and fatigue.
“This is a sleep-deprived regime,” said Zelenskiy’s former defence minister Oleksii Reznikov, adding that the president was often on the move around Ukraine and had a “grab bag” with a change of clothes and a toothbrush because he frequently didn’t know where he’d be spending the night.
紧张、不耐烦、睡眠不足。走进乌克兰战时总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基的无情世界。 这位 46 岁的领导人表示，他 2019 年当选时的雄心是帮助乌克兰成为现代民主国家，但这一使命因 2022 年俄罗斯入侵而破灭。 前单口喜剧演员泽伦斯基在五月就职五周年纪念日接受采访时告诉路透社，“五年前我想要的只是一个非常自由的国家和自由的经济。”本周，他承认想要杀死俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京，因为他对乌克兰最大的儿童医院遭受空袭表示愤怒和痛苦。 战争磨练的泽伦斯基最近几天在华盛顿举行的北约峰会上敦促西方领导人采取行动，这与成为总统时的政治新手截然不同，更不用说多年前曾是演艺界重量级人物的电视喜剧演员了。 他甚至还曾赢得过乌克兰版“与星共舞”的冠军。 2019 年，刮净胡子、孩子气的泽连斯基在基辅宣誓就任总统，当时他穿着一套适合他瘦小身材的时尚西装，现在却被一个看起来老得多、身材沉重、沉思的人物所取代。他通常穿着准军事制服，胡茬不刮，眼皮底下黑黑的眼圈。泽连斯基在接受路透社采访时基本上回避有关自己的提问，而是专注他对乌克兰一些战时盟友的深深不满，并回到了他的核心信息：西方必须提供更多帮助。 路透社采访了曾与泽连斯基共事的八名现任和前任乌克兰及外国官员，以及他过去的几位朋友和同事。 他们描绘了一位领导者的形象，在应对全天候的压力和疲劳时，他变得更加强硬、更加果断、更不能容忍错误，甚至容易变得偏执。 泽连斯基的前国防部长奥莱克西·雷兹尼科夫表示：“这是一个睡眠不足的政府。”他补充说，总统经常奔走乌克兰各地，并带着一个装有换洗衣服和牙刷的“小包”，因为他经常不知道他会在哪里过夜。
