The accidental greatness of Volodymyr Zelenskyy

There are two types of ambition. Both are about seeking success. The distinction between them flows from two different meanings of that word, success.

The first type is about trying to do a job well. It is an ambition related to a sense of responsibility. It is about facing some challenge and trying to overcome it.

The second is about personal rewards. Wanting to be rich, or famous, or in receipt of glory – being showered with the praise of other people. It is ambition as entitlement.

The two can co-exist. You can want to do something well and want to be rewarded for it. They can also stand alone.

Responsible ambition is a good thing (provided the job in hand is a worthy one). Entitled ambition, when combined with responsibility, is not good but is perhaps not truly bad. However, on its own, entitled ambition is a malignancy.

For the past few days, the eyes of the world have been on Ukraine. Can it really be the case that the Russian invasion only began last Thursday? Even in the accelerated world of the 2020s - with our compressed experiences, with our foie gras brains overloaded by the seismic, historic busyness of world events and by the modern gadgetry that stuffs us full of multimedia information - this seems astonishing.

Well, it seems astonishing because it is.

Had the invasion been a walkover, had we watched an independent country get subsumed into a neighbour at the whimsical behest of a tyrant, even that would have been incredible (and awful).

However, the fears and horror that greeted the start of the invasion, while they remain in place, have become intertwined with something else, something magical, something absolutely overwhelming: the bravery of the Ukrainian people, led by their President.

Doing the right thing, and doing it well

Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the President of Ukraine and the global face of that nation’s efforts to fight back a massive invading force.

He has stayed in Kyiv – as have his wife and children – while in great danger, encouraging his people to fight for the right to live freely, governed by themselves.

Last week the United States offered to evacuate Mr Zelenskyy so that he could fulfil his role as President from abroad, and from safety, both while any fighting continued and in the event that Russian troops secure the capital city along with the eastern half of the country (which, at that time, looked a highly-likely outcome and which still could happen any day).

He declined, saying “I need ammunition, not a ride,” a line that will go down in history - alongside every other little detail of this immense time in our collective history (five days and counting).

His televised speech last Thursday, aimed squarely at the Russian people, is already the stuff of legend.

Few would have blamed him for leaving. Most people would have accepted the American offer; ruling in exile is itself a whole genre of politics. But he did not leave. He chose to lead from the front.

You couldn’t write it

Mr Zelenskyy was born in 1978 in what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. His paternal grandfather Semyon fought in World War II. The family is Jewish. Semyon’s father and three brothers were all murdered in the Holocaust.

Volodymyr studied law at university but wanted to be a performer. He became a comedian, featuring in films and TV shows. He is the Ukrainian voice actor for Paddington Bear. In 2006, he won the country’s version of Strictly Come Dancing.

One of Oscar Wilde’s most famous quotations is that “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.” The narrative arc of what would become the ultimate example of this Wildeism began in 2015, with a new TV show on the Ukrainian channel 1+1.

Servant of the People, starring Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is about a history teacher who accidentally becomes the President of Ukraine after he is videoed ranting about political corruption and the video then goes viral.

The show ran until 2019, the year Mr Zelenskyy became President in real life. His emphatic victory was based on tackling corruption – the message that public service is a responsibility not a reward. His political party is named Servant of the People.

Ambition

Mr Zelenskyy got into politics by accident but, when it happened, he came to it with ambition. The good kind of ambition. The ambition of wanting to perform a job well.

During his inaugural address, he said: “I do not want my picture in your offices: the President is not an icon, an idol or a portrait. Hang your kids' photos instead, and look at them each time you are making a decision.”

Not the ambition of entitlements, of glory or rewards.

Now this man – a comedian, a husband and a father – stands in a city under attack, fighting alongside his people, each of whom share his bravery and fortitude as he shares theirs.

He could have made different choices. Could have approached this crisis in many other ways. Instead, under the greatest possible pressure, in the greatest possible danger, he has repeatedly asked himself how he can best perform his role and duties - and done simply that.

It is impossible not to watch Mr Zelenskyy in awe. And it is difficult to avoid comparisons with our some of own elected representatives.

Careerism is marbled through Stormont. Right now, Westminster is even worse. The Prime Minister is an inadequate, someone who sees holding the highest office as the fulfilment of an entitlement rather than the starting point of a great responsibility. This attitude has always worked for him. For decades, every lie propelled him higher, leading to the ongoing disaster in Downing Street right now. The very idea of Operation Save Big Dog is as grotesque as it is embarrassing. Compared with Mr Zelenskyy, it is farce. The career politician is the joker, the comedian a true leader.

Of course, for all the venality of UK politics, things could be worse. Much, much worse. Mr Zelenskyy’s true opposite isn’t in the UK. If you want to know what political leadership looks like when it is fuelled only by the bad kind of ambition, look no further than Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

The invasion continues. Some things seem certain: the West is reinvigorated; Russia is hobbled. Some things are not: Ukraine hangs in the balance, as do the lives of Mr Zelenskyy and his millions of compatriots that choose to fight. We might be reading his obituary by the end of the week. Let us all hope that does not come to pass.

Regardless, a few years from now, when you’re eating pizza and watching Jamie Dornan play Mr Zelenskyy in the epic Hollywood biopic, remember that he began his political career as a man with the right kind of ambition.

He just wanted to do his job well. Showing monumental courage, he kept that attitude as the challenges became historic and then deadly. It led him to greatness, and rejuvenated the very idea of freedom across the western world.