Volodymyr Zelenskiy Biography
Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskiy – a former Ukrainian comedian who started his career in KVN [Club of the Funny and Inventive, Russian and Ukrainian comedy TV-show – Zoomboola.com]. His team was called "95th block".In the mid-2000s he left KVN and created a satirical TV show with the same name as his KVN team. Over the next 10 years, "95th block" became a huge entertainment company that included multiple comedy shows and a film production company. Zelenskiy was a producer of "Svaty" TV-series, very popular both in Ukraine and Russia.
"Servant of the People" was released in 2015. Four years later, the show's plot became reality. Zelenskiy ran for president, facing his opponent Petro Poroshenko, and won the election with 73% of the vote. He became president during a very difficult time for Ukraine. The country was in conflict with Russia, ruled by Vladimir Putin, who wanted to turn Ukraine back under the Russian sphere of influence since the 2014 Revolution of Dignity.
Childhood
Volodymyr was born on January 25, 1978, in Kryvyi Rih, a Ukrainian city in Dnipropetrovsk province, and spent the first 4 years of his life there. Then his father Oleksander Zelenskiy, a professor of cybernetics, got a job offer and moved to Mongolia with his family, including his wife Rimma, an engineer, and Volodymyr.
At the local school, Volodymyr was known as one of the best students. He got A's in every school subject, but most of all he loved liberal arts. After school he played basketball, did weightlifting, learned English and attended drama class. He also loved music and studied guitar and piano. He was always the center of attention, had a lot of friends and school awards.
KVN
In high school Zelenskiy with his classmate and best friend Denis Manzhosov entered the "Besprizorink" [it means "homeless child"] school theatre. Also, there studied the future Volodymyr's wife Elena Kiyashko.
In 1997 the team became a High league champion. Following this success, Zelenskiy and Manzhosov founded their own KVN team "95th block". Volodymyr served as the team's main joke writer and captain.
The 95th Block Studio Projects
After ending their partnership with KVN and Maslyakov, Zelensky and his teammates moved into Ukrainian television. The "1+1" TV channel soon approached the comedian with a partnership offer. This is how The 95th Block Studio was born in 2005.
Political views
Before 2014, Volodymyr, who had always been a celebrity with ties to both countries and relatives in Russia (his wife's parents lived in Moscow), didn't take sides.After the Maidan and the Revolution of Dignity he supported Ukraine and sponsored the "Donbass" volunteer battalion, which fought against pro-Russian troops in Donetsk and Lugansk regions. He was sure that the war must end for the sake of human lives. After that, he thought, Kyiv and the Kremlin would sit down at the negotiating table. Volodymyr opposed banning Russian artists from entering Ukraine.
Zelenskiy parodied Russian officials very often. For example, here is his parody on Vladimir Putin in "The Evening Block".
President of Ukraine
On January 1, 2019, Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced his participation in the upcoming presidential elections as a member of the "Servant of the People" party. The eponymous TV series slogan "The history of the next president" became prophetic.On March 31, 2019, Zelenskyy beat Poroshenko in the first round of voting, but got less than 50% of the votes. On April 21, after the runoff, Zelenskyy won the election with 73% of the vote.
On 20th May there was Zelenskyy's inauguration. Soon the new president dissolved Verkhovna Rada and asked the Cabinet to resign. Also, he asked the officials not to hang his portrait in government offices. "The president is not an idol. And his portrait is not an icon", he said. Two months later Ukraine had a parliamentary election. Zelenskiy's party got 43,16% of votes.
There was no progress in negotiations with Russia, and the president's attention turned to Crimea. On August 2021, the Crimean Platform summit was held. The participants discussed methods for returning the peninsula to the jurisdiction of Ukraine.
In early 2021, Zelenskyy announced a push toward deoligarchization of Ukraine. He created a list of oligarchs with marks about their net worth and readiness to cooperate with the authorities. In October, Verkhovna Rada speaker Dmitriy Razumkov was dismissed for criticizing the deoligarchization policy.
In 2021, Zelenskyy also blocked the broadcasting of three Ukrainian TV channels: 112 Ukraine, NewsOne and ZIK.
Ukraine's Criminal Code was expanded with a new article against anti-Semitism carrying a maximum sentence of 8 years in prison.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy's Personal Life
Elena Kiyashko attended the same school as Volodymyr, but they didn't actually meet until later when Zelenskiy was a university freshman. He spotted her on the street and spent time figuring out how to approach her. When he noticed the "Basic Instinct" VHS in her hands, he asked to borrow it for the evening and managed to get her phone number.
Volodymyr Zelenski: Russo-Ukrainian War
By the end of 2021, tensions between Russia and Ukraine had escalated again. In December, Russian troops were deployed to Ukraine's borders. By late February 2022, the escalation reached its peak.On February 24th, just two days after Putin's recognition of Donetsk and Lugansk within their administrative boundaries, the Russian president launched an invasion of Ukraine.
His EU parliament speech was awarded with a loud applause.Our goal is to be with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be equal. I am sure that's fair. I am sure we deserve it ... Ukrainians have shown the world who we are, while Russia has shown what it has turned into…. Every crime, every shelling by the occupier only unites us more.