The most vulnerable and most brave president

The world admires Vladimir Zelensky. Here's what is written about him and about the war in Ukraine in Europe, America, Asia and Africa

The Russian war with Ukraine has been going on for the fifth day. Media of different countries and continents write about her. They note the courage of the inhabitants of Ukraine and the president of the country Vladimir Zelensky, who daily records appeals, encourage Ukrainians, calls for Russians to enter anti -war actions and asks the West to support. Medusa studied how the world press perceives Ukrainians and their president right now, and made a brief retelling of articles of different publications.

What media did we read?

These are mainly English -language publications from different countries. There were quite a lot of media from European countries and the USA in our selection. These are famous and authoritative publications; At the same time, the countries where their main editions are located in the Russian-Ukrainian war support Ukraine.

We have not studied the media of Russia and Ukraine themselves, as these are aspects of the conflict. We also did not study the media of Belarus, as the Russian military launched missiles in Ukraine from the territory of this country. At the same time, some columns from a selection for foreign publications were written by Russian and Ukrainian journalists and analysts.

The phrases given in the retelling are not necessarily accurate quotes. Sources at the bottom of the material are listed in the order of their use for this article.

We have never seen this. This is a world online war-the first war in a total interconnected world; The first war that will be shown in Tiktok. Less than a day from the moment of Russia's invasion we had more information about what was happening than throughout the first week after the US invasion and Iraq in 2003. There are already many videos from Ukrainians on the Internet, and they break their hearts.

What is this an attempt to seize someone else's land or an attempt to protect Russia? It looks like the first, although Russian President Vladimir Putin insists on the second. He is clearly obsessed with the idea of ​​the Russian Orthodox kingdom. But how can one dream of restoring historical Russia and give orders that will lead to the death of Ukrainians and Russians? How can I explain the invasion of a country whose president is a Jew ?

It seems that Putin hoped that China would support him, but China remains neutral . Perhaps he hoped that Kyiv would fall within a day, but he was not taken so far. Did the Russian president miscalculate? It’s too early to talk about it, but it is already clear that this war will change the world. Hard sanctions were imposed on Russia, and it, apparently , will answer them. All this will lead to economic shock not only in Russia itself and in Ukraine, but also in other countries. Economic growth will slow down around the world and inflation will accelerate.

Ukrainians showed courage, which deserves admiration and support. They are ready to protect their homes: office employees disassemble machine guns, and teachers make Molotov cocktails. But Ukrainians should not fight alone. The European Union will finally begin to supply weapons to Ukraine, the UK will stop turning a blind eye to the dirty money of the Russian oligarchs, and the US authorities coordinate economic assistance to Ukraine more than six billion dollars.

The West began to more actively resist Russia's aggression, including after the desperate calls of the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky. The former comedian, who played in low -grade Russian comedies and voiced the bear of Paddington in Ukrainian, won the presidential election as a person outside the corrupt Ukrainian elites in 2019. And although in the second round he scored more than 73%, both in the country and abroad were those who treated him with distrust and neglect.

His election campaign lacked specifics. His ability to withstand the onslaught of Russia raised questions. He promised to fight corruption, but handed out posts in his administration to friends and ended up at the center of the scandal with offshores. He was sensitive to criticism in the media: he liked to. By October 2021, his rating went into a free fall. Against the background of reports of the impending Russian invasion, he called not to panic, and it annoyed many.

More recently, there were fears that Zelensky would surrender Ukraine in the event of an invasion of Russia. But they were in vain. When the war became inevitable, he again began to play the role of the president on TV, and was organic in it.

He bypasses Putin on his field of a strong leader and wins in the information war. He fights with Russia with the help of a telephone: for communication with Western leaders, whom he calls on to introduce all new restrictions against Russia, and for communication with his people, for whom he writes the video, convincing not to believe the rumors about his flight from Kiev. He turns to Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians in Russian and Ukrainian. He shows composure and determination, not forgetting about a sense of humor.

And all this despite the fact that, remaining in Kiev, he endanates the danger of arrest or death . “I need help with cartridges, and not with departure,” - so he allegedly answered the Americans, who offered to evacuate him from the Ukrainian capital. He remained - unlike, for example, from the President of Afghanistan Ashraf Gani, who fled before the invasion of the Taliban - and this makes him honor. He is the most vulnerable and most brave president of the European country and he is popular in Ukraine more than ever.

The war is far from the end. The dedication of Ukrainians and the help of the West may not be enough for victory, and Zelensky can still lose his aura. But he already went down in history as a Ukrainian patriot who is fighting for the freedom of his country, as a real example of courage and political leadership.

Sources : The New York Times , Slate , The Jakarta Post , Daily Maverick , The Japan Times , The Times , The Wall Street Journal , GQ , AFP , The Washington Post , CNN ( times , two ), BBC, BBC, BBC, BBC, BBC, BBC) Afrique , The Guardian , Reuters , Toronto Star, The Intercept , South China Morning Post ( one , two ), Hindustan Times , Al Jazeera , Der Spiegel , Los Angeles Times , the Spectator .