My Meeting with President Zelensky

It was a peaceful and hot summer of 2019. Ukraine was recovering from a political storm of presidential elections in March and April, with a record 44 candidates — the best illustration of a young and vibrant Ukrainian democracy. The election elevated, as many thought at the time, a random figure to the political Olympus — actor and comedian Volodymir Zelensky.

People, tired of politics, chose the show person, “the man from TV,” in the hope that their own lives would turn into a bright TV show with a happy ending. It was really a time of great hope. Ukrainian society was dominated by euphoria and dreams of a peaceful, prosperous future.

I felt this atmosphere in the 2nd class car of the Kiev-Lviv train as it took me into the heart of western Ukraine. It was July — the middle of a relaxing and gently lulling Ukrainian summer.

Behind the train window was endless and magical Ukrainian nature: the dense forests of Volyn, then the picturesque hills and fields of Galicia. I especially liked the ancient town of Dubno, praised by Nikolai Gogol in his famous story Taras Bulba. Its location on a gentle hill and the picturesque castle of the Princes of Ostrogsky were really beautiful. But, my destination was Lviv, the historical center of Ukraine and its unique culture.

The streets of Lviv were flooded with sunshine, live Ukrainian music was playing, the air was filled with the aroma of fine coffee and sweet summer flowers.

As a friend of mine from Lviv once told me, every city has its own flavor. I definitely agree with him. Warsaw smells of doughnuts, Krakow of traditional bagels. Berlin smells of fresh leaves and pastries. Lviv smells of rain, coffee and summer flowers.

Foreign tourists were enjoying the historical heritage of the city and its incredible creative atmosphere, representatives of different cultures freely understood each other. The cold Lviv beer contributed to this in no small measure.

I never noticed the language barrier speaking Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, and English. The atmosphere of inclusiveness and freedom followed me everywhere and was the main discovery of the whole trip.

Rynok Square (Market Square), the true heart of Lviv, always attracted me. The high tower of City Hall, beautiful historical monuments, bright colorful facades of houses — I was not the only one who could enjoy the beauty of the place. On July 6, I took a long walk through the central streets of Lviv. Near Rynok Square, in front of the Roman Catholic Cathedral I noticed an unusual activity. A crowd of tourists surrounded a small cafe and greeted someone in a lively manner. I walked closer. President Vladimir Zelensky was sitting at a table on the summer terrace drinking his morning coffee. He was chatting with the Mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovy. It was their business breakfast.

There weren’t many security people around. The president was sitting only 3 meters away from me. He did not wear a beard at the time. And instead of the khaki t-shirt we are used to seeing today, he was wearing a classic suit. He was the young and ambitious leader of a young and ambitious country. He was just one year older than me. He was the president of hope.

I immediately recalled another historical scene described by the Russian writer Alexander Kuprin. 120 years ago, on one of his trips abroad, he met the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph in Vienna. The monarch was sitting at a table in the street, drinking beer and chatting with passersby. My impressions of meeting the Ukrainian president were very similar. I remembered that Lviv 120 years ago was also part of the Austrian Empire. And in my favorite Lviv cafe, which traces its history back to 1894, a portrait of Franz Joseph still hangs in the hall. Under this portrait I used to sit and drink my afternoon tea with chocolate Vienna cake.

Emperor Franz Joseph adored dessert Imperial, which was served at Café Imperial (Kärntner Ring, 16) in Vienna. As I learned in 2019, the Ukrainian leader loves good Lviv coffee, whose history is no less unique. The atmosphere of old-fashioned European culture and young Ukrainian democracy is what I liked most about the meeting with president Zelensky that day.

History repeats itself twice: the first time as a tragedy and the second time as a farce. In July 2019 at Rynok Square in Lviv, I felt that the farce was still a long way off. President Zelensky was extremely serious about his historical mission.

Volodymir Zelensky’s election campaign for the 2019 presidential election was an innovative challenge to the existing political order in the country.

Prior to that, he had already appeared as the “head of the Ukrainian state” in the television series “Servant of the People”, produced by his own production company, Studio Kvartal 95. His election campaign quickly began to resemble a one-actor theater marathon, in which the hero, playing his role and feeling strong, easily crushes the traditional political elites.

Zelensky’s political phenomenon was built not only on his incredible charisma (worth the fact that he attracted 570,000 volunteers in 2019). His emergence coincided with the mainstream sentiments of the Ukrainian voter — an unsatisfied demand for new leaders and, most importantly, an incredible weariness with politics. The high support he received was a consequence of public dissatisfaction with the leaders, the lack of new names and new creative ideas.

A revolutionary approach in terms of political marketing in Zelensky’s election campaign was the use of social media. Volodymir Zelensky became the first and only Ukrainian politician who can do without television. His audience reach on social networks is comparable to that of the average Ukrainian TV channel. A short video blog on Instagram gets 700–800 thousand views, and individual videos — 1.5 million. “With such indicators he does not need to go to talk shows at all”, — noted the experts.

Zelensky’s victory in the 2019 presidential elections in Ukraine showed that the country will never again return to the corrupt Victor Yanukovich regime. The Ukrainians were fed up with it. They were tired of the monstrous corruption and absolute dysfunction of the state in the social and economic sphere. The new leader consolidated the Ukrainian society and secured its unconditional support of the idea of reforms and European integration.

The results of the presidential election demonstrated that Zelensky’s personal popularity, unrelated to his political position, can be much more convincing than the imagined or real successes of incumbent Ukrainian politicians.

Even his political opponents recognized that the path of reforms was necessary to overcome the destructive legacy of the post-Soviet Ukrainian oligarchy. To defeat corruption and ensure economic growth, immediate institutional changes were needed. In this sense, the quality of political management was of crucial importance.

The first year of Zelensky’s presidency was especially difficult because he had virtually no team. As practice proved, hiring former friends from show business to work in the government was a very bad decision. However, Zelensky was constantly on the lookout for new people; he was open to new ideas and communications. He was a free leader (or at least strived to be) of a free country.

That is how I saw him in July 2019 in Lviv. These vivid memories will stay with me forever. The president of Ukraine was sitting at the table of an ordinary cafe on the summer terrace, surrounded by ordinary people. Even his security guys did not look strict. Those young men seemed to act like carefree children compared to the importance of the mission entrusted to them. It was the relaxed atmosphere of a summer festival, not an official visit. Fans took selfies, tourists stopped for historical photos. Everyone could perfectly feel the sense of freedom, openness and inclusiveness. It was a peaceful, very calm and sunny noon in Lviv. People were just enjoying the moment. Each of them had a deeply personal meeting with the president that day.

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