Over the past 30 years, many Ukrainians have asked when their nation will finally find George Washington, a leader who can rally the people and lead them to victory.
I have usually told Ukrainian negotiators that Washington was not born to be a great man; He was united by the trials of the Revolutionary War, when he demonstrated his ability to lead and be a symbol of the American struggle. A Ukrainian Washington could emerge in a similar fashion, and now it probably has.
The Ukrainian question may have been answered by an unlikely candidate for the role of hero: Volodymyr Zelensky, a comedian-turned-president whom many analysts, including me, would have considered disastrous for the country. He was elected in a landslide in 2019, and, like most Ukrainian presidents, faced red-tapism, internal power struggles, his own lack of experience - what many Ukrainians call incompetence - and the need to introduce some significant reforms before being bogged down by COVID- Proceed to 19 Crisis.
A damaged apartment building after a rocket attack in Kiev, Ukraine, on Saturday.
Then, to make things worse, in mid-2021 Zelensky faced a massive Russian military build-up on Ukraine's borders. He underestimated it for months - leading to even more criticism of his administration - until it became clear a few weeks ago that Russia's strongman President Vladimir Putin had set his sights on attacking Ukraine.
Since then, and especially since Putin officially announced his aggressive intentions and the invasion began, Zelensky has searched his backbone and acted admirably, even heroically, with the flag. Rallying the nation around, organizing the defense of the homeland, lobbying foreign countries for support, pacifying the population with well delivered patriotic speeches, appealing to the Russians to end the madness, and this Demonstrating that they have no intention of running away.
Zelensky's defiant speech and selfie videos shot on the streets of Kiev have gone viral. "Here we are," he said calmly into a cellphone camera on Friday, standing beside his top advisers. "We are in Kiev. We are defending Ukraine."
The message was clear: he would defend Ukrainian sovereignty and statehood to the end. Impressed by Zelensky's bravery and commitment, even his most serious critics have been silenced.
A few days after Putin's invasion, the Warsaw-based Jan Karski Society (named after the heroic Polish underground courier who informed the West of the atrocities against Jews in the Warsaw ghetto) called on Zelensky for his " Jan Karski Eagle Award for Heroic". The defense of Ukraine and the moral values of Western civilization." As a member of the prize committee, Rabbi Abraham Skorka said: "Let us note that the sin of omission towards Ukraine and the brave nation does not persecute us, such as the Holocaust. in front of the sin of omission."
By indirectly comparing Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Skorka was suggesting that the Russian dictator was following in Hitler's footsteps, that his aggression was tantamount to genocide, and that Zelensky - himself from a Jewish background - followed the ways of those. was working from Heroic man who opposed the Nazis.
The fact that Zelensky is a Russian-speaking Ukrainian Jew is of great symbolic as well as political significance. In his past life, he was not particularly political. His comedy made fun of patriotic Ukrainians, and did not pay much attention to the way he expressed the three identities. But everything has changed in the last few days and weeks.
Zelensky identifies with Ukraine as a whole, but this Ukraine is broad, diverse, tolerant and committed to freedom and democracy. No less important: this Ukraine – which Putin vulgarly claims to be de-Nazified – has also been embraced by the majority of Ukraine's residents, regardless of their language preference, religion or ethnic background. In fact, some of the most significant dispatches from the ongoing war are Russian-speaking Ukrainians defending their independence and cursing Putin.
The war for Ukraine is not over yet, and Zelensky may still stumble and lose his aura. In any case, he will go down in history as a new type of Ukrainian patriot who fought for the independence of his homeland. And finally, he may deserve to be considered the George Washington of Ukraine.