Volodymyr Zelensky Trivia | 50 facts about the president of Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelensky is the current Ukranian statesman. He gained recognition as the wartime leader of Ukraine.

So let’s find out some trivia and facts about him.

1. His full name is Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky
2. He was born 25 January 1978
3. He is a Ukrainian statesman
4. And a former actor and comedian
5. He has been serving as the president of Ukraine since 2019
6. He gained worldwide recognition as the wartime leader of Ukraine during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
7. Zelensky grew up in Kryvyi Rih, a Russian-speaking region in southeastern Ukraine
8. Prior to his acting career, Zelensky obtained a degree in law from the Kyiv National Economic University
9. He then pursued comedy and created the production company Kvartal 95
10. His company produces films, cartoons, and TV shows
11. The TV shows his company produced include Servant of the People, in which Zelenskyy played the role of president of Ukraine
12. The series aired from 2015 to 2019 and was immensely popular
13. A political party bearing the same name as the television show was created in March 2018 by employees of Kvartal 95
14. Zelensky announced his candidacy for the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election on the evening of 31 December 2018, alongside the New Year’s Eve address of President Petro Poroshenko on 1+1 TV Channel
15. A political outsider, he had already become one of the frontrunners in opinion polls for the election
16. He won the election with 73.2 per cent of the vote in the second round, defeating Poroshenko
17. Identifying as a populist, he has positioned himself as an anti-establishment, anti-corruption figure
18. As president, Zelensky has been a proponent of e-government and unity between the Ukrainian-speaking and Russian-speaking parts of the country’s population
19. His communication style heavily utilises social media, particularly Instagram
20. His party won a landslide victory in a snap legislative election held shortly after his inauguration as president
21. During his administration, Zelensky oversaw the lifting of legal immunity for members of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic recession, and some progress in tackling corruption
22. Critics of Zelensky claim that in taking power away from the Ukrainian oligarchs, he has sought to centralise authority and strengthen his personal position
23. Zelensky promised to end Ukraine’s protracted conflict with Russia as part of his presidential campaign
24. He attempted to engage in dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin
25. Zelensky’s administration faced an escalation of tensions with Russia in 2021
26. Culminating in the launch of an ongoing full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022
27. Zelensky’s strategy during the Russian military buildup was to calm the Ukrainian populace
28. He also tried to assure the international community that Ukraine was not seeking to retaliate
29. He initially distanced himself from warnings of an imminent war
30. While also calling for security guarantees and military support from NATO to “withstand” the threat
31. After the commencement of the invasion, Zelensky declared martial law across Ukraine and general mobilisation
32. Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky was born to Jewish parents on 25 January 1978 in Kryvyi Rih, then in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
33. His father, Oleksandr Zelensky, is a professor and head of Department of Cybernetics and Computing Hardware at the Kryvyi Rih Institute of Economics
34. His mother, Rymma Zelenska, used to work as an engineer
35. His grandfather, Semyon (Simon) Ivanovych Zelenskyy, served in the Red Army (in the 57th Guards Motor Rifle Division) during World War II
36. Semyon’s father and three brothers were murdered in the Holocaust
37. Prior to starting elementary school, Zelensky lived for four years in the Mongolian city of Erdenet, where his father worked
38. At the age of 16, he passed the Test of English as a Foreign Language
39. He received an education grant to study in Israel, but his father did not allow him to go
40. He later earned a law degree from the Kryvyi Rih Institute of Economics, then a department of Kyiv National Economic University and now part of Kryvyi Rih National University
41. He did not go on to work in the legal field
42. In September 2003, Zelenskyy married Olena Kiyashko
43. With whom he had attended school
44. The couple’s first daughter, Oleksandra, was born in July 2004
45. Their son, Kyrylo, was born in January 2013
46. In Zelenskyy’s 2014 movie 8 New Dates, their daughter played Sasha, the daughter of the protagonist
47. In 2016, she participated in the show The Comedy Comet Company Comedy’s Kids and won 50,000 hryvnias
48. Zelensky’s first language is Russian
49. He is also fluent in Ukrainian and Englis
50. His assets were worth about 37 million hryvnias (about $1.5 million USD) in 2018