Kiev - (AFP) - Wearing a khaki T-shirt, tired features, light beard and regular media appearances, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has become a symbol reflecting Ukrainians' determination to defeat Russia despite its huge military arsenal.

Weeks before the Russian invasion on February 24, his presidential term, which he began three years ago, was losing some momentum, as the former comedian was struggling to fulfill his electoral promises in a country plagued by poverty and corruption. It was easy for his opponents to say that the scale of responsibility he assumes is greater than a comic actor, and Western countries regret that the new Ukrainian president at the time seemed unable to implement the required reforms.

"Before the war, many people treated Ukraine as a failed state and Zelensky as a weak president," says political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko.

And when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine at dawn on February 24, Moscow was convinced that its offensive would be short and that the weak Ukrainian authority would collapse.

All major Ukrainian cities were subjected to heavy bombardment, Kharkiv, Lviv, Dnipro and Odessa, and the Russian army marched towards the Ukrainian capital, Kiev.

"There were rumors that (the Ukrainian president) would flee," Fesenko recalled.

However, the reality was different. Zelensky attracted attention after he appeared in a video clip recorded in front of the buildings of the Presidential Administration in the center of Kiev, and his advisers surrounded him.

His eyes staring into the camera lens, he said, "We are all here, our military is here, the citizens, the community, we are all here, to defend our independence, our state."

More than ten months after the start of the war, exhaustion is evident on his face and his beard has grown, but every evening his determination is the same that he directs to his compatriots in videos posted on social media.

Meanwhile, Zelensky and his army inflicted surprising defeats on Putin's army: in April, the Kremlin retreated from entering Kiev, in September it lost control of the Kharkiv region, and then in November it lost Kherson, the capital of the region of the same name.

The Financial Times, which awarded Zelensky the title of Man of the Year, did not hesitate to compare him to former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who led the war against the Nazis.

In Russia, on the contrary, Zelensky is presented as the leader of a neo-Nazi genocidal clique or the leader of drug addicts, even Satan.

"The Russian Orthodox Church must officially announce that Zelensky personifies the arrival of the Antichrist," political analyst Arayik Stepanyan said on Russia 1 in November.

But Zelensky, 44, is also the leader of the media battle. He has previously appeared on the cover of the fashion magazine "Vogue" with his wife, Olena, as well as in the southern city of Kherson, which was recaptured by Ukrainian forces in November, singing the national anthem surrounded by soldiers.
These scenes contrast with those showing Putin operating isolated in the Kremlin.

Zelensky has also used his popularity and the suffering of Ukrainians to extract more weapons and more funding from his Western allies.

For this purpose, he always presents his country as a bulwark against Russian imperialism and as a defender of democratic values, as he did in June when he told Czech deputies that Moscow is targeting "a vast area from Warsaw to Sofia and from Prague to Tallinn."

And he takes a tough line on leaders who ask him to make concessions to Moscow, such as French President Emmanuel Macron.
He received in his office the leaders of Western countries who visited Kiev successively, as well as Hollywood stars.

Zelensky, who grew up in the industrial city of Kryvyi Rig in a predominantly Russian-speaking region, did not expect to play this role.

Before entering politics, he made a successful career as a comedian, in Ukraine as well as in Russia, where the same TV channels that insult him today would invite him to appear on their screens.

As of 2015, he plays an honest but naive history professor who accidentally becomes the president of Ukraine, in a hit series.
However, the fantasy became reality with his election in 2019 by Ukrainians fed up with a corrupt political class, including their billionaire president, Petro Poroshenko.

"Zelensky turned out to be a real patriot, fighter, president," says Volodymyr Fesenko.

With winter in Ukraine and Russian missiles destroying the country's energy facilities, Zelensky will have to maintain the resilience of his citizens, who face frost and darkness, and the resolve of his allies.
According to Fisenko, Zelensky must "preserve society's will to resist and ... to support the West," because "the feeling of war exhaustion is a real challenge."