Thursday, May 9, 2019. Volodymyr Zelensky sat on the stone bench placed in front of the grave of his paternal family. On the horizon, a long black slag heap, typical of mining towns in the Dnipro region and south-eastern Ukraine. In front of him, carved in mortuary marble, the portrait of a woman in everyday dress and that of a man in Red Army uniform, with barrettes and decorations: his grandparents, Anna and Semen Ivanovych Zelensky.
The sixth head of state of independent Ukraine was elected on April 21 with 73% of the vote – six points more than the president. that he embodies in the series servant of the people. He had promised himself that one of his first outings would be for his grandfather at the end of the end of the Vsebratske cemetery, in Kryvy Rih, the family cradle, 450 kilometers from kyiv. Semen is this Jewish colonel who, due to his presence on the front during the Second World War, escaped the massacres committed by the Nazis. Coming here to celebrate the anniversary of victory of 1945, his grandson intends to give a quick history lesson to his compatriots.
There is no camera other than his own phone. The electoral campaign proved it: his cell phone is his best communication tool. No, he wrote on Instagram and Facebook as he left the cemetery, the war was not won thanks to Ukrainian nationalists alone: it took the help of the Soviets like his grandfather. He also slips a message to the Russian neighbors. ” There contribution of Ukrainians [au succès] was gigantic. (…) Bravo for this victory over Nazism! »
Ten days later, Volodymyr Zelensky is officially sworn in as President of Ukraine. “Bravo “Vova”, you finally have a real job! », laugh his friends at Studio Kvartal, the production house he created in kyiv. Everyone has their compliments, including in Moscow: “Good luck, Volodya”, launches the famous Russian comic Maksim Galkine. Exiled in Spain, another Russian actress, Tatiana Lazareva, rejoices like a child on her “Insta”: “Now I personally know a president…”
His election just broke all the rules of old political science, and the miracle streak servant of the people sells out at once on all international TV program markets. The country has seen him grow up with him on television, often in disguise, sometimes clumsy, but always full of energy and spirit. A new generation comes to power with him. The one who bears the four letters “USSR” for life on her passport, but whose country of birth has disappeared, especially the one who became an adult in independent Ukraine.
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