As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tells it, when Russia invaded 100 days ago, no one expected his country to survive. World leaders advised him to flee.
“But they didn’t know us,” he said in a late-night video address in April, when the war hit its 50th day. “And they didn’t know how brave Ukrainians are, how much we value freedom.”
He could have been speaking about himself. No one knew how a 44-year-old man who had catapulted himself from the world of entertainment into the presidency would respond to an invasion by Russia’s giant army.
His response has been forceful — and compellingly
