Comedic actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy is preparing for a major transition in his life: from being a popular television fixture to becoming the president of Ukraine.
The actor, who has no political experience, won the first round of the vote on March 31, leaving veteran politicians in the dust. Currently, he holds a huge lead in the polls over his opponent, incumbent President Petro Poroshenko, just days before the runoff election on April 21.
The two are set to face off in a presidential debate before a live crowd of thousands of people at Kyiv’s Olimpiysky Stadium on April 19.
“I’m having a hard transition period,” Zelenskiy said during a rare appearance on television after the first round of the election. On April 18, he came to the late-night political talk show, Pravo na Vladu (“Right to Power”) on 1+1, the channel for which he has produced a wide range of comedy shows and sitcoms for over six years.
“I have my business, Kvartal 95, in which I’m transferring the powers (to others). I have children. I’m a living person. And I’m going into politics as a person. I don’t have experience; I don’t know a lot but I’m just like everyone else,” he said.
Leaving his production business is breaking out of his comfort zone, Zelenskiy said, but he felt it was his social mission.
“People’s lives are at stake. Nine million Ukrainians have left the country. It is a shame. It is a nightmare. We didn’t keep the most valuable we have — people. The rest that we own, all plants, enterprises, experts, reforms. Who are they for if in five years another half of the population moves out of the country? Each of us has to do what they can. Just leave the comfort zone in which I am in the Kvartal 95 studio. This business is hard work of our big team. I am grateful to Ukraine that I made it. I became a popular and well-off man thanks to Ukraine and Ukrainians.”
“I will do everything I can. I will bring in smart people. If I fail, I will leave. That is why I’m running only for five years (one presidential term), and one of my first bills will be a law on impeachment,” he said.
In his campaign, Zelenskiy has chosen a strategy of communicating with his voters through short video messages and having his advisers speak on television on his behalf. He has not held a press conference and has given almost no interviews to media, drawing the discontent of journalists.
“I’m not hiding from journalists. I have 500 requests from western media, and just as many from Ukrainian ones. I can’t be everywhere.”
“I don’t go on talk shows where people from the old elite dogfight with each other and promote themselves,” he said. “I can’t tour television channels like the incumbent president and say the same things. If we win, we will continue to communicate with the society through videos.”
Zelenskiy said he agreed to debate Poroshenko because he was tired of hearing insults. The president openly called him “a puppet for oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky,” called on him “to be a man,” and insinuated that he was a drug addict. In his campaign speeches, Poroshenko also asserted that Zelenskiy would be a weak leader of the nation, to the benefit Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his presidency would turn Ukraine into “Little Russia.”
Answering a question about the nationalization of PrivatBank, which was declared illegal by the Kyiv District Administrative Court earlier on April 18, Zelenskiy promised to do everything in his powers as president to keep the largest bank of the country stable.
The actor has been under scrutiny for his links to one of PrivatBank’s former owners, oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.
“I talk to Kolomoisky only in regard to our partnership with 1+1. I will not engage in any corruption schemes to return it to anyone. I don’t care what Kolomoisky thinks,” Zelenskiy said.
