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Zelensky named ‘dreamer of the year’ by POLITICO

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Zelensky named ‘dreamer of the year’ by POLITICO
Zelensky in the White House in Nov. 2023 (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

POLITICO on Nov. 28 named President Volodymyr Zelensky ‘dreamer of the year,’ recognizing him among historical figures including Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Winston Churchill.

“From his defiant “We are here” video filmed in the first days of the war outside his presidential office on Bankova Street and his iconic “I need ammunition, not a ride” quip delivered in response to a U.S. offer to evacuate, to the tailor-made screeds he has given in parliaments around Europe and the world, Zelenskyy inspired Ukrainians to continue resisting Russia’s attempted full-scale invasion, and cajoled, shamed and begged nations into helping them do so.”

In Dec. 2022, Zelensky directly addressed the U.S. Congress in Washington D.C., invoking the spirit of previous global wartime leaders.

The Ukrainian leader rose to power via a landslide election win in 2019, defeating incumbent chocolate oligarch Petro Poroshenko, and capitalizing on widespread public anger at corruption.

Zelensky hosts bipartisan US congressional delegation

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Lance Luo

Lance Luo (Li P. Luo) is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. Previously, he worked at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Hromadske Television in Kyiv. He also spent three years in finance and strategy consulting. Mr. Luo graduated from the University of Southern California and serves as an arbitrator at FINRA.

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The Kyiv Independent’s Oleksiy Sorokin sits down with Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center, to discuss Ukraine’s biggest wartime corruption scandal, which involves people from President Volodymyr Zelensky's circle and several government officials.

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